Primitive Christianity and its corruptions ... Discourses delivered in Hopedale, Mass. ..

%

V

l>^s%

* . NOV 1 3 1805 *,

gR 148 .B3 go3_i890.

??lSlvf c".;istianity and
^\Ts corruptions .^^

V.3

With the Compliments of

548 We6T Park Street,

Dorchester, Mass,

Please Acknowledge Receipt.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS.

^ VOL, III.

DEPARTMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

A SERIES OF DISCOURSES

Delivered in Hopedale, Mass.,
A. D. 1871-72,

BY ADIN BALLOU.

Edited by William S. Heyvvood.

" For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto
the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." — / Pet. ii. 2j.

" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me." — John x. 2y.

" Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke, with all author-
ity."— Titus ii. 14, /J-.

LOWELL, MASS.:
Thompson & Hill, Printers. — The Vox Populi Press.

1900.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

This Volume is the third and concluding one of the series
projected by the author and prepared in part for publication
some years before his decease. Like those already issued, it
is composed of certain Discourses written and delivered in
the usual order of Sunday service, v^^hile he was Minister of
an independent Religious Society in Hopedale, Mass., his
place of residence for nearly fifty years. In its completed
form the work may be regarded as embodying his mature
and undoubted convictions touching the great questions of
truth and duty which engaged his attention and taxed his
energies during the greater portion of his long and active
life; as his last contribution to the religious literature of the
world; his legacy to inquiring and progressive minds in
generations that were to come when he should have passed
beyond the scenes of earth and time. It is the fruit of a
definite and disinterested purpose on the part of the writer
to serve his Maker and his fellow-men in some substantial,
enduring way — a purpose which dominated his whole being
and which gave meaning, dignity, and worth to his character
and career.

The three volumes which make up the series, all bearing
the common title of " Primitive Christianity and its
Corruptions," follow each other in the natural and logical
order of succession. The first, under the sub-title of "Theo-
logical Doctrines," treating of the Divine Order of the
world and universe and the Moral Government under which
all rational and responsible beings therein exist, constitutes
the foundation upon which the theory and practice set forth
in the subsequent ones rest. The second, devoted to that

IV EDITOR'S PREFACE.

department of the common subject denominated " Personal
Righteousness," is designed to portray and illustrate the
quality of character and order of life in the individual which
are generated and required by the ethical principles and
spiritual forces the first essays to disclose, elucidate, and
commend. The third, pursuing the same line of thought
and carrying the same method of proceedure out to larger
issues and to more comprehensive results, endeavors to
delineate, under the head of " Ecclesiastical Polity,*' the
true nature, purpose, and work of the Christian Church, as
indicated in the life, teachings, and example of its Founder;
its purpose and work being, not simply to formulate, maintain,
and promulgate a given system of faith or scheme of doc-
trine through the agency of carefully devised and appropriate
institutions, ordinances, and ceremonial observances, but to
make that faith or doctrine conduce to the renovation of per-
sonal character, to the extension of the realm of human
brotherhood, to the right ordering of the conduct of men in
all their relations to each other, to the reconstruction of
society and the modeling it after the Christian ideal, and to
the building up, in righteousness, love, peace, and joy, of a
heavenly kingdom on the earth.

The special object or design of these volumes cannot be
easily misunderstood. It is to restore the long-lost simplicity
and purity of the religion of Jesus Christ to the thoughts
and hearts of men; to lead the lovers of truth and gcod back
from the errors with which ignorance, superstition and bar-
barism had obscured the person, the teachings, and the mis-
sion of Jesus to the real man of Nazareth, as he was when he
went about Galilee and Judea doing good ; healing the sick,
cleansing the lepers, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom,
and turning men from darkness to light, from sin to holi-
ness, and from the power of Satan unto God. It is to portray
him, not as he has been represented for fifteen hundred years
by theologians, dogmatists, and creed-makers, but as he actually
appeared to those who gathered about him when he was
upon the earth, listening to his words, and catching the con-
tagion of his pure and disinterested life; to affirm and empha-

EDITOR'S PREFACE. V

size the practicability of his principles and spirit in all human
concerns, under all possible circumstances; and to urge the
duty and importance of applying those principles and that
spirit to the thought, feeling, and conduct of men in all the
affairs and relations of life. In this regard the author was
but anticipating if not helping to put in motion the obvious
trjend of the religious world in these later days, of all Chris-
tiaii denominations whatsoever name they bear — the trend
away from the medieval or traditionary conception of Chris-
tianity to that which, according to the most trustworthy
records, obtained among the primitive disciples and evangelists;
away from a scholastic, speculative faith to a practical, liv-
ing one ; one that shall renew, uplift, and perfect the hearts
and lives of individual men, establish a divine order of
human society upon the earth, and redeem the whole world
of human kind.

That this trend actually exists and has become a marked
feature of modern church life is most manifest and unques-
tionable; one of the encouraging signs of the times. It has
already wrought a notable change for the better in a multi-
tude of particulars since the Discourses which appear in this
work were written. Old-time creeds have been greatly modi-
fied or are superseded by more modern and better ones.
Belief, as a test of Christian discipleship or basis of fellow-
ship, is giving way to character and Christlikeness. The
suspicions and animosities that formerly embittered the rela-
tions of different denominations are dying out, and mutual
respect, confidence, and co-operation are taking their place.
The humanities are rising to prominence in the church at
large ; to lift the burdens and remove the disabilities that
multiply the sorrows of mankind are getting to be therein a
prominent interest and concern. The evils of existing indus-
trial and social systems are recognized as never before, and
as never before are professing Christians of all faiths cast-
ing about for ways and means of remedying them. Earnest
and devout men and women on all hands are discussing
social problems and seeking methods of bettering the rela-
tions of different classes of people to each other, and of

VI EDITOR'S PREFACE.

developing a more humane, fraternal, and Christian type of
civilization. Many theological schools and other seminaries
of learning are establishing Lectureships or Chairs of Soci-
ology, under the growing conviction that there are radical
defects and immoralities existing in the present order of
human life, in its larger and more comprehensive aspects:
and the more high-minded and Christlike of publicists and
statesmen are counseling, as in no other period of history?
mutual amity between the nations, arbitration instead of an
appeal to the sword for the settlement of disagreements and
grievances, peace and not war as the standing policy of states
and empires throughout the world. The Divine Fatherhood
and Human Brotherhood are coming to be regarded not as
merely sentimental abstractions, glittering generalities, irides-
cent dreams, but as practical truths, inspiring and transform-
ing ideals, the watchwords wherewith to stir the hearts and
arouse the zeal of men to the sublime task of building up
here and now the kingdom of God. True followers of Christ,
all lovers of their kind, may well rejoice that these things
are so, and give thanks therefor to the Author of all good;
and since these things are so, it is more than probable that,
had the Discouses contained in the present and two pre-
ceding volumes been written by the same hand twenty-five
years later than they were, many of the strictures in them
upon the nominal church and much of the censure applied
to it for its infidelity to the principles and spirit of the
primitive Gospel, would have been considerably modified,
if not omitted altogether.

And yet it is by no means certain that those strictures and
the accompanying censure are not even now in order, and to
a considerable extent needful as a testimony to "the truth
as it is in Jesus," and to the life, individual and social, which
his religion delineates and requires. For notwithstanding all
that has been done in the direction indicated — notwithstand-
ing the progress that has been made along the lines which
this volume pursues, the church is still in important respects
far from the ideal herein set forth, far from that state of
moral and spiritual pre-eminence which qualifies it to be a

EDITOR'S PREFACE. VII

trustworthy guide to the highest and best things — a sure
leader of the race forward by the way of a transformed and
reorganized humanity to the promised millennium of universal
righteousness, brotherhood, and peace. Instead of standing
firmly and uncompromisingly for the eternal realities, and for
the application of divine moral principles to all the relations
and concerns of men, testifying unhesitatingly against pre-
vailing v^elfishness, greed of gain, lust of power, militarism,
and kindred immoralities and abominations, it is often a
caterer to them, an excuser of them, a suppliant for favor
at their hands ; a bond-servant of existing civilization, a
retainer of worldly government, a subaltern of the state, to do
its bidding and to sanction and sanctify its undertakings,
however unjustifiable they may be, regardless of the spirit
and requirement of Christ or of any divine authority or
right of governance In heaven or on the earth. This pusil-
lanimous subserviency to the powers that be, this treachery
to the Master it professes to serve, on the part of the church
at large was strikingly illustrated in its action respecting the
late war between the United States and Spain, and its
deplorable and inglorious sequel, the invasion of the Philip-
pines. While the war-spirit was kindling into life throughout
the country by the clamor of the worst elements in the
political arena and the frenzied utterances of a depraved
portion of the public press ; and when the portents of open
hostilities, involving incalculable cruelty, bloodshed, and death,
with the sorrow and distress attendant thereon, were filling
the national sky, the church, in its various branches and
through its representatives, protested most vigorously against
the threatening conflict as a most appalling calamity, opposed
to the humanitarian spirit of the age, repugnant to the better
sentiments of the human heart, and hostile to the beneficent
and peaceful genius of the Gospel of Christ. But no sooner
was war declared then these protests were hushed to silence,
and the voice of the churchman chimed in with those of the
politician, the purveyor of a debased press, and the lover
of strife and carnage, justifying, encouraging, and urging on
the bloody, fratricidal strife. And with a few praiseworthy

Tlir EDITORS PREFACE.

exceptions the church through its varied instrumentalities
has joined heartily with the world in prosecuting the work of
human slaughter, either by active participation therein or by
giving it willing support, or it has crowned that work with
the laurel of its approbation and sanctified it with commenda-
tory prayer and pious song. As if an act of Congress or the
proclamation of a President could convert an awful calamity
into a blessing, make a great wrong right, or render the
angelic song of " Peace on earth good will to men," and the
holiest teachings of the Savior of the world, of no more
practical account, and no more worthy of regard in the inter-
course and conduct of nations, than the mutterings of a
senseless enthusiast or the chattering of foxes in the forest
wilds. As a matter of fact, there have been in the closing
years of the nineteenth century, no more supple, obsequious,
enthusiastic worshipers of the sanguinary war-god than many
who dwell in the bosom of the church, than some who stand
before the world as its champions and functionaries.

Such being the case the publication of the present volume
at the present time seems opportune and needful ; and its
demand for a regenerate church, fashioned after the pattern
given us in the New Testament and embodying in some
large measure the spirit of love to God and man, to be
amply illustrated in character and life, is as reasonable and
fitting as it is Christian. As there is an infinitely Perfect
One who doeth His will among the inhabitants of earth as
well as amid the armies of heaven, who maketh the wrath
of man to praise Him, and the folly of man to serve His
cause and kingdom, and who will raise up laborers to work
in His vineyard and carry His puipose in the creation of
the world and of those dwelling in it to a complete fulfillment,
so shall He, in His all-wise Providence and by the operation
of His Holy Spirit, some day cause a radical transformation
to take place in the church that now is, or create a new one
characterized by higher principles, having a more excellent
ministry, established upon better promises ; a church that will
exalt to supremacy the standard of righteousness, brother-
hood, peace, and love, and under that standard go forth con-

EDITOR'S PREFACE. IX

quering and to conquer, till the victory shall be won and the
Icingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of
God and of His Christ. To promote this grand result was
this volume planned and written, and for the accomplishment
of this purpose is it now sent forth into the world. May
the Great Disposer of all events, the Eternal Helper of all
beneficent and redemptive undertakings, speed its mission
and make it conducive to the enduring welfare and happiness
of mankind and to the honor of His ever-blessed name.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE I.
Christ the Founder of a Church ..... 1

DISCOURSE II.
The Distinctive Nature of Christ's Church ... 21

DISCOURSE III.
The Moral Plane of the True Church . . . .39

DISCOURSE IV.
The True Church a \'oluntary Association . . .56

DISCOURSE V.
The True Church Self-subsisting and Independent . 74

DISCOURSE VI.
Allegiance to Christ and His Church . . , .90

DISCOURSE VII.
Essentials of the True Christian Church . . . 108

DISCOURSE VIII.
Importance of a Declaration of f^aith .... 124

XII TABLE OF CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE IX.
Exposition and Defence of Cardinal Objects . . 142

DISCOURSE X.

Exposition and Defence of Cardinal Objects — Con-
cluded 159

DISCOURSE XI.
Exposition of Theological Faith — Part One . . 179

DISCOURSE XII.
Exposition of Theological Faith — Part Two . . 199

DISCOURSE XIII.
Exposition of Personal Righteousness .... 212

DISCOURSE XIV.
Exposition of the Principles of Social Order . . 229

DISCOURSE XV.
Organization of the True Church 2-J:-4

DISCOURSE XVI.
Administrative Policy of the True Church . . . 260

DISCOURSE XVII.
Examination of the Xicene Creed 276

DISCOURSE XVIII.

The Apostle's and Athanasian Creeds — Analyzed and

Compared - 290

DISCOURSE XIX.
The Roman and Greek Churches 309

TABLE OF CONTENTS XIII

DISCOURSE XX.
The Church of England, etc. — The XXXL\ Articles 329

DISCOURSE XXI.

The Church of England, etc. — The XXXIX Articles —

Concluded 315

DISCOURSE XXII.
Beliefs of the German Protestant Churches . . . 362

DISCOURSE XXIII.
Presbyterians, Congregationalists. and Regular Baptists 378

DISCOURSE XXIV.
The Arminian Denominations — Methodists, etc. . . 396

DISCOURSE XXV.
The Moravians and Friends ...... 418

DISCOURSE XXVI.

Christians, Swedenborgians, and Shakers . . . 437

• DISCOURSE XXVII.

The Universalist and Unitarian Denominations — Con-
clusion 459

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND ITS
CORRUPTIONS.

DEPARTMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

DISCOURSE I.

CHBIST THE FOUNDER OF A DISTINCTIVE CHUBCH,

" On this rock will I build my Church and the gates o£
hell shall not prevail against it." — Matt. xvi. i8.

" Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it ;
* * * That he might present it to himself a glorious Church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish." — Eph. v. 25, 27.

"The Churches of Christ salute you." — Rom. xvi. 16.

In the first volume of the series constituting my
complete work upon Primitive Christianity and
ITS Corruptions I treated of the Theology taught
by Jesus Christ and his early Apostles according
to the New- Testament Scriptures, as distinguishable
from those misinterpretations and perversions of it
which, soon after their day, came in to supplant or
at least vitiate its most essential characteristics and
seriously weaken its power of moral and spiritual

U PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

enlightenment, uplifting, and redemption among
men. In the second, I discharged a similar duty
in respect to what I termed the Personal Righteous-
ness of the original Christian Gospel ; or, in other
words, its ethical significance and claims, as far as
regards those who profess to believe and practice it.
And now in the third and last one bearing the
same general title I purpose to pursue the same
course with reference to what I denominate the
Ecclesiastical Polity of pure Christianity ; by which,
I mean, its teaching and requirement concerning
the formation, administration, and executive func-
tions of the so-called Church of Christ. And by
the phrase, Church of Christ, I would be under-
stood as indicating that company, assemblage, or
body of persons, more or less closely affiliated and
organized, who, in any place or time and under
whatever name, acknowledge in some specific way
a common faith in and allegiance to Christ as a
moral and spiritual teacher, guide, and Saviour, and
who are united to each other in the bonds of a
recognized sympathy, fellowship, and brotherhood.
In its larger sense, the phrase may include, at any
period of human history, the entire hierarchy of
Christendom — all those the wide world over, who,
as disciples of Christ and in his name and by the
promptings of his spirit of love to God and man,
are seeking by organic methods and established
institutions to illustrate the principles and precepts
of his religion in their own characters and lives,
and to extend as far and wide as possible their
influence and power in the world.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 3

And SO, too, what I call the Ecclesiastical Polity
of Christianity may be regarded as including in its
more comprehensive significance and final purpose,
not simply the regulation and orderly control of
what are usually designated sacred interests and
concerns but secular also, — all possible human
interests and concerns in all the relations and cir-
cumstances of life. And this present series of dis-
courses might be deemed, what in large measure I
intend it shall be, an Exposition of Christian Soci-
ology ; or a treatise upon the obligation and duty
of all who bear the Christian name and who are
associated for Christian work, to make the spirit
and principles of the religion they profess and
glorify conduce, through the agency of the church
and its instituted activities, not only to the reno-
vation and perfection of individual character, but
to the evolution and achievement of a divine order
of human society. Christianity, as I view it, is not
in any proper estimate of its merits, claims, and capa-
bilities, a partial, fragmentary, one-sided religion, but
all-sided, all-comprehensive, universal. And the
church of Christ, true to its 'divine purpose and
to the design of its founder, contemplates and
involves, in the grand sweep of its inherent pos-
sibility and in its ultimate development, nothing
less than the actualization of the ideal social state- —
the establishment as an accomplished fact of the
kingdom of God on the earth. All this I hope
to be able to show conclusively to the intelligent
and candid reader on the pages of the present
volume.

4 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Before entering specifically upon the task thus
indicated, however, and as a fitting introduction to
it, I deem it desirable, if not necessary to a clear
understanding of the matter under examination, to
inquire whether or not Christ himself did in reality
or virtually found a church, — whether or not, he
to all practical intents and purposes, caused to be
brought together in a common fellowship, union,
or brotherhood, a company of men and women
believing in him, acknowledging his claims, and devot-
ing themselves to the faith and life which he incul-
cated ; who in their associated capacity were in any
proper sense worthy to be considered a chicrch, a
distinctive body of disciples fitted and authorized
to represent him and to carry forward his work in
the world. The vast majority of his professed fol-
lowers have never doubted this, but a few extreme
Protestants and radical thinkers have not only
doubted but denied it. Such have usually con-
tended that there is one universal spirito-moral
church, comprising all the Christlike or truly good
on earth and in heaven ; that Jesus recognized this
mystical, unorganized company of saintly ones as
his real church and neither instituted nor author-
ized others to institute any definite, specified body
or community of disciples to be known by his
name separate from general human society or the
world at large. Some excellent people — reformers
and moralists — who revolt from ecclesiastical
organizations on account of their imperfections and
abuses, alleging that they are inherently mischiev-
ous and restrictive of personal liberty, and tend natu-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 6

rally to arbitrary and despotic rule, lean radically
to that conclusion. But I cannot agree with them.
I do not object to the idea of an inorganic, uni-
versal church, united by spiritual ties alone, in its
proper sense and place. I rather believe in it.
Nevertheless, I insist upon the fact of a distinctive
association of Christian believers — a community
of disciples — separated from the Jewish ecclesias-
ticism and from all classes of then existing peo-
ple— founded by the Master; in the world but
not of it. And I furthermore believe that such a
body or community, properly called a church, was
necessary to the permanent establishment of Chris-
tianity among men and its progress in subsequent
ages and final triumph throughout the earth.

But in saying that Jesus of Nazareth was the
founder of such a church, I do not intend to be
understood as affirming that he formally organized
it and devised a set of machinery for its manage-
ment, after the prevailing modern fashion ; drawing
up a constitution and by-laws, securing signatures
to the same, having officers elected for the dis-
charge of certain specified duties and putting things
in motion in an arbitrary, mechanical way ; but
rather that he declared the principles which under-
lie the church, awakened in human souls the spirit
which brings them together in a true fellowship,
set before men and women objects so worthy of
their ambition and noblest effort as to impel them
to stand by each other and work together for their
own mutual growth in the divine life, for the exten-
sion of the Gospel far and wide as possible, and

6 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

for the salvation of humanity. In this sense, and
to this extent, it is as true and as reasonable to
regard Christ as the founder of the church that is
known by his name as it is to call George Fox the
founder of the Society of Friends, or to say that
John Harvard was the founder of the ancient Uni-
versity at Cambridge. He brought together and
moulded the material of which it was first composed,
he taught the inspiring truths which gave it life,
he imparted to it the spirit of love to God and
man which was its distinguishing characteristic, he
set in motion the activities which made its exist-
ence possible and which clothed it with mighty
power as a redemptive agency in the world of man
according to the plan of God. Its more formal
and complete organization, its more specific methods
of operation, its more adequate equipment for its
heaven commissioned work in the years and ages
ahead were left to the care of the Apostles, whom
he appointed to represent him and his cause, to
preach his Gospel, and to advance the interests of
his kingdom after he should pass away from earth,
and to that eternal divine Providence which has all
fortunes and destinies in its keeping and which
evermore sees to it that agencies and instrumen-
talities shall never be wanting for carrying forward
the great work of human regeneration, and for ful-
filling to the utmost the grandly beneficent purpose
of .the Infinite One.

It is the special purpose of the present discourse
to show that Jesus Christ was himself the projector
and founder of the Christian Church, even as he

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 7

was said to have been the author and finisher of
our Christian faith. This I shall endeavor to do,
partly by rational and fair-minded inference and
partly by more direct and well-authenticated testi-
mony, presenting my argument in the form of
several definite propositions which I will state and
discuss in their proper order respectively.

I. The constitution pf human nature rendered
it necessary for Jesus to establish a church — that
is, to bring his disciples together in a more or less
closely related body, separate from the world at
large — in order to the successful prosecution of
the work that he felt to be given him of God to
do while in the flesh.

Christianity, whether regarded as a theory of
divine living on the part of individuals and in all
possible social relations, or as a great providential
movement in human history, has a basis in the
constitution of man, and in its practical aspects
and bearings must have been built up on that con-
stitution and in accordance with its inherent
impulses and demands, or it would have come at
an early day to disastrous and irretrievable failure.
No philosopher ever lived who understood this
better than Jesus himself, as was clearly shown in
the immediately preceding volume. And no one
ever labored in any department of the field of
human culture and improvement who kept that
fact more distinctively in mind, and acted more con-
sistently in respect to it than did Jesus, during the
entire period of his earthly ministry. He took
human nature as it is in its inherent capacities and

8 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

possibilities, and therefrom sought to evolve by the
co-operative aid of the Holy Spirit an individual
and social life in harmony with the all-perfect life
of God. He took that same human nature and
marshalled its indwelling forces into his service
as agencies for the diffusion of his Gospel and the
promotion of his kingdom in the world.

Among those forces recognized and employed by
him was the social instinct, or element, a constitu-
ent part of the being of man. Human nature is
intrinsically social as well as individual. Its indi-
viduality, giving self-poise and dignity no less than
variety to character and to life, is not to be ignored,
destroyed, or impaired. The same is true of its
sociality. Absolute, personal independence is an
impossibility among men. The perfection of the
individual isolated from the great brotherhood of
humanity is a delusion and a snare. It was a
divine utterance, howsoever spoken, which declared
that "it is not good for man to be alone." There-
fore God created the race male and female. There-
fore " He set the solitary in families." Therefore,
under His providential rule, men have been cor-
related and grouped according to some definite,
although, mayhap, inapprehensible law of associa-
tion and affiliation, into neighborhoods, communities,
municipalities, provinces, states, and nations.

"Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend.
Bids each on other for assistance call,
Till one man's weakness orrows the strength of all."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 9

No one person possesses the full complement of
human capabilities in full exercise and development.
All need the sympathy, help, support of their fellow-
beings, and there is no absolute good of one sepa-
rate from the universal good. The native-born
instincts, affections, longings of the mind and heart
of man, prompt to companionship, co-operation,
unity. And this is especially so when, under the
inspiration of a common faith, hope, and love, a
truly great, good, glorious work is to be accom-
plished, a sublime mission to be carried forward to
its fulfillment. Christ was not ignorant of these
obvious facts. His entire ministry proves that
''he knew what was in man," and that he was
watchful and eager to employ the inborn human
energies which he found awaiting the summons to
noble and holy activity for the furtherance of his
beneficent work. And it is not reasonable to sup-
pose that he overlooked or neglected in his search
for ways and means of action, the social attributes
of man's nature — among . the most central, com-
manding, and efficient forces dwelling therein.
There are good grounds therefore for believing
that Jesus not only assented to and approved the
grouping of his early followers together in his name
as a testimonial of their allegiance to him, and for
the advancement of his cause, but that he counseled,
encouraged, and aided them in their course — that
they acted in this, as in so many other respects,
under his more or less open and formal guidance
and leadership. Moreover,

10 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The religious sentiments, faculties, capabilities of
mankind are pre-eminently social in their nature, and
when called into vigorous activity, tend spontane-
ously and inevitably to unity, friendliness, reciproc-
ity of thought and conduct, mutual helpfulness,
fraternization, in practical life.

This is fully demonstrated in the experience and
history of men under all forms of faith, in all ages,
of the world. Wherever we find the votaries of
any assumed object of worship, real or imagined ;
the believers in any creed, true or false ; the follow-
ers of any prophet, as man of God or a pretender ;
there we find also associated activity, for purposes
of personal advantage or of ecclesiastical support
and propagandism. Where vital religious sentiment
exists, there are churches, sects, denominations,
hierarchies, in multifarious form ; of more or less
closely related unitary life. This is not simply
natural, it is indispensable to healthful existence
and to ultimate success. When linked with sin-
cerity of purpose, fidelity to principle, and a desire
to benefit and bless mankind, it is highly com-
mendable. For deep religious convictions and a
profoundly religious spirit draw people together,
awaken a feeling of brotherhood, combine forces
and agencies for effective service, and so strengthen
the common cause and promote the universal good.
Jesus therefore, by addressing the religious nature
of those about him, by arousing their spiritual
energies, by calling them from self and sin to the
worship and service of God in the way of duty and
of sacrifice, virtually summoned them to and prepared

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 11

them for the formation of that society of believers
which was afterwards to be called the Churchy and
which was to be known by his name to the remot-
est generations. He put them upon a course of
thought and conduct, the legitimate and inevitable
result of which, in the very nature of things, was
a distinctive body of people confessing allegiance
to him as Lord and Master, bound to each other
by the ties of a common faith and of spiritual
harmony, and representing before the world both
him and the cause with which he was in life and
in death indissolubly identified.

2. The divinely appointed mission and distinctive
righteousness of Jesus Christ required a church as
an agency for maintaining their claims to the ven-
eration and love of mankind, and for perpetuating
their influence and power of good unto coming
generations and ages.

The mission of Christ was not simply, as seems
to have been supposed by the great majority of
those who have professed to be his followers in
bygone days, to save the souls of men from the con-
sequences of sin and evil in the eternal world — in
a future state of being ; but to save them from>
the miseries incident to sin and evil in this present
world, and with regard, not to the soul alone, but
to both soul and body. This is evident alike from
his precepts and from his example. To the intelli-
gent reader of the New Testament the quoting of
texts and passages portraying what he said and did
in proof of this view would be superfluous. Fur-
thermore, that mission had respect also to the asso-

12 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ciated relations of men as well as to their strictly
personal affairs ; to human society no less than to
individual conduct and character. And the right-
eousness he inculcated was correspondingly compre-
hensive, all-embracing, universal. It was to be
applied to all possible human concerns, and illus-
trated in all possible human activities, public as well
as private, social as well as individual, national and
international as well as personal.

It was important therefore, not to say indispensa-
ble, in order to duly and effectually set forth the
larger aspects of the purpose of Christ's mission,
that his true disciples should separate themselves
from the existing social order, which was charac-
terized by tyranny, fraud, corruption, hatred, wrath,
-and war, and form, by and of themselves, an asso-
ciation or community free from all demoralizing
alliances, co-partnerships, and responsibilities, becom-
ing thus the nucleus and illustrative example of
a new social order, based upon the principles of the
•Gospel of their Lord and animated by the spirit
of love to God and man. And this course of con-
duct was no less important and indispensable when
•considered in respect to the distinctive righteous-
ness of pure Christianity, which in any true view
of it demands the same stern, uncompromising
application of the principles of virtue and upright-
ness to the social conduct of men, to the policies
and practices of communities, states, and nations,
and the same exemplification of the spirit of love and
'brotherhood that is enjoined upon men and women
in their personal characters and in the utmost

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 1^

recesses of their private lives. The real doctrine o£
Christ regarding this matter is that the command-
ments of the Most High are binding alike upon all
men in all life's relations ; that what is absolutely
wrong for one person to do by him or herself, is.
wrong for any number of persons to do, in any form
of association and by whatsoever name designated ;
that individual and social morality is one and the
same, in all lands and among all nations, unto the
end of time.

And my contention is that Christ, being engaged
in a mission which involved a regeneration of the
social life of men as well as of their personal char-
acter, and teaching a righteousness which was
obligatory upon his disciples in all their public
relations and interests no less than in their private
conduct and character, must, as a necessity, have:
contemplated and provided for the establishment
of a church — a body of believers in him who should
be able to illustrate among themselves and in their
relations to each other the excellences and graces
enjoined upon them by their holy religion; who
should be in the midst of a wicked, an adulterous
generation, and in a selfish, sensual, oppressive, war-
engendering, man-slaughtering world, what the Apos-.
tle says they were, "a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ; who
should show forth the praises of him who called
them out of darkness into his marvellous light ;
which in time past were not a people but are now
the people of God." Thus separated from the pre-
vailing evils of their time and from the corrupt,.

14 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

unchristian practices, customs, and policies of the
existing church and state, they were morally and
spiritually considered *'the light of the world," "the
salt of the earth," as the Master called them ; "the
little flock" of faithful ones to whom ** it was
the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom."

3. The moral progress and ultimate happy des-
tiny of mankind on the earth, as foretold by the
prophets and seers of then past times, and as the
God-designed result of Christ's mission, made
the existence of a church an indispensable necessity.

In the sublime economy of the universe as
planned and directed by the Infinite Power, Wis-
dom, and Love, it is provided beyond all perad-
venture, in my judgment, not only that the human
race as a whole shall attain a state of final holi-
ness and happiness in the world to come, but that
the portion of it dwelling in this world shall at
length become thoroughly regenerated and Chris-
tianized, in fulfillment of the ancient saying of the
Hebrew seer that " All shall know the Lord from the
least to the greatest," and of the prayer taught by the
Master, *'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven." Inasmuch as such
a grand issue is fore-ordained of God from the
foundation of the world, and inasmuch as it is
not to be secured by any super-mundane, miracu-
lous agency operating independently of human will
or effort, but according to those laws of orderly,
moral, and spiritual nurture and growth under which
human and divine forces interblend and co-op-
erate for the promotion of the end in view, it

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 15

was absolutely necessary that methods and meas-
ures should be instituted by those engaged in the
work adequate to its successful prosecution and
ultimate achievement. Not only must personal
character be renovated and ennobled, becoming
thereby a power of good in the community and
world, but social life must be reconstructed and
made to conform to high ideals; "a more excellent
way " for men to live together as children of one
Father in Heaven must be shown as an illustration
of what ought to be in the manifold relations of
men to each other, and as a sample, also, of what
some day would be among all classes of people to
the ends of the earth — the way of love, harmony,
brotherhood, peace. And this work of social recon-
struction was begun under the inspiration of Christ's
teaching and example by the early disciples in the
formation of the church ; this " more excellent way"
was exhibited by the little company or companies
of those who in his day accepted his Gospel, and,
being animated by his spirit, abandoned the customs
and practices of existing society in its ecclesiastical
and political aspects, and entered into a new fellow-
ship based upon diviner principles and illustrative
of a higher civilization than had ever existed before.
The necessity of such action must be apparent
to every thoughtful mind. The faith and constancy
of believers depended upon it ; nay, the very exist-
ence of Christianity itself. But for the powerful
moral influence of the church ; but for the strong
bonds that by association with kindred minds and
hearts held them to their better purposes and

16 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

resolves, the mass of those early believers would
have been swept away and lost forever to the cause
of Christ by the corrupted currents of the world's
tumultuous life ; would have been swallowed up by
the mighty maelstrom of selfish greed, of carnal
indulgence, of worldly ambition, of bloody strife,
which then engulfed the masses of mankind. But
for the church, which, in the providence of God,
preserved the traditions and the testimonies of the
great Teacher, which kept alive the story of His
wondrous works and transmitted the knowledge of
them to coming generations, all that Jesus said and
did would have died away upon the airs of time
and perished from the memory of the race. Chris-
tianity obtained a sure foothold as a new revelation
of God to men, it survived the dark days that fol-
lowed the crucifixion of him who gave it being, it
became a great, on-going, ever-swelling movement
in human history, because the church was founded
in Christ's own day, as a result of his labors, as a
fruit of his spirit, as a conservator of the Gospel of
the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man.
The new wine of the divine kingdom was put into
the new bottles of a regenerate, Christianized
church, and was thus preserved.

4. The fulfillment of the profounder hopes and
aspirations of a human heart' in the earlier ages of
the world, in the most inspired teachings of the
ancient Jewish people, was largely if not wholly
dependent upon the founding of a church on the
part of him by whose agency the foreshadowed
result was to be accomplished.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 17

Thus Moses is reputed to have said, "The Lord
thy God will raise up to thee a prophet from the
midst of thee of thy brethren ; unto him shalt thou
hearken." — Dent, xviii. 15. And Isaiah, ** Unto us
a child is born, a son is given ; and the govern-
ment shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of
the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon
his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even
forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall per-
form this." — Isa. ix. 6, 7. "Behold my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul
delighteth ; I have put my spirit upon him ; he
shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles."
" He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have
set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for his law."^ — Isa. xlii. i, 4. And yet another, "I
saw in the night visions, and behold one like the
son of man came with the clouds of heaven ; * * *
And there was given him dominion and glory and
a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and his king-
dom that which shall not be destroyed." — Daniel
vii. 13, 14.

Now whatever theory we may adopt in regard to
the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, or
whatever view we may hold concerning the direct
application of the passages quoted to the person

18 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and mission of Christ, it cannot, I think, be doubted
that they wer^e the formulated utterances of those
instinctive desires and aspirations which God had
implanted deep in the heart of humanity in the
beginning and may reasonably be deemed divine
auguries of some future good and glory for the
race — of some deliverer, Messiah, Saviour yet to
come, who should bring redemption to Israel. Jesus
did not refrain from applying them to himself and
of considering them indicative of his mission ;
whether in a literal or in a spiritual sense does
not affect materially the use I now make of them.
That they have a place and a meaning in the divine
order of the world, I have no doubt, as I have
none that they are rich in promise for the genera-
tions and ages that were to be when they first
found expression in human speech and took their
place in the annals of the world. And my plea is,
that, as such, the blessings that they foretell, so far
as they were to be the outcome of the advent and
life-work of Jesus of Nazareth, could not possibly
have been shared and enjoyed to any marked degree
except through the agency of the Christian society
or church. This makes such society or church an
indispensable adjunct or outcome of Christianity
itself, a legitimate product of the work of Christ.

5. The New Testament records are replete with
passages which imply if they do not positively
declare that Christ regarded himself and was
regarded as virtually the designer and founder of
the church with which his name was and has
always been identified. My text is one of these.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 19

*' On this rock will I build my church," etc., and
again, " I am the good shepherd and know my
sheep and am known of mine." " Other sheep I
have which are not of this fold*; them also I must
bring and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd." — John x. 14, 16.
As a final act of discipline in the case of an offend-
ing disciple he said; "Tell it unto the church;
but if he neglect to hear the church let him be as
a heathen man and a publican." — Matt, xviii. 17.

When the great outpouring of the Spirit oc-
curred on the day of Pentecost, soon after the pass-
ing away of Jesus from the earth, and multitudes
were converted thereby under the preaching of
Peter, it is written that ''The Lord added to the
church daily such as should be saved." — Acts ii. 47.
"Ye are the body of Christ," said Paul, "and mem-
bers in particular." — i Cor. xii. 27. "Christ is
the head of the church." — Eph. v. 23. "He
(Christ) is the head of the body, the church." —
Col. i. 18.

From these and kindred passages found in
the Gospel and Epistles it seems to me evident
that Christ deemed himself in some proper and
distinctive sense the architect and builder of that
religious order or associated group of men and
women who owned a common allegiance to him,
who were glad to confess that their highest, truest,
best life was derived from him, and who felt bound
to him by the most tender and sacred of ties —
those of spiritual sympathy and fellowship ; an
order or group known even at an early day as his

20 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

church. And furthermore it seems evident that
the Apostles, without any hesitation or question,
regarded him in the same light ; as standing in the
same relation to themselves and their fellow-believ-
ers that the head in any living organism does to
the various members and functions which make of
that organism, a living, perfect whole. " For as
the body is one and hath many members and all
the members of that one body, being many, are
one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are
we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have
all been made to drink into one Spirit." "Now
ye are the body of Christ and members in par-
ticular."— I Cor. xii. 12, 13, 2^.

In my next I will enter upon an exposition of
the intrinsic nature and constitutional character of
Christ's true church.

DISCOURSE II.
THE DISTINCTIVE NATUBE OF CHBIST'S CHURCH.

" Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and
ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and
that your fruit should remain," — John xv. i6.

" Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of
God : And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone :
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord." — Ephs. ii. 19, 20, 21.

Having in the preceding discourse established the
fact, as I think, that Christ was himself the virtual
founder of the church bearing his name, the next
inquiry that naturally suggests itself to the truth-
seeking mind relates to the distinctive, inherent
nature of that church, as he formed and fashioned
it, and started it out on its beneficent and saving
mission in the world. Accepting the general lines
of reasoning and the conclusion deducible therefrom
referred to, we may confidently assume at the
outset that he could not have given existence and
character to an institution or association in any
wise inconsistent with or unworthy of his own
office, principles, spirit, and supreme object in life ;
in any degree beneath the lofty plane of personal

22 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and social righteousness enjoined by his own pre-
cepts and illustrated by his own example; — an
institution or association not pre-eminently superior
in instrinsic moral excellence and religiously uplift-
ing power to the Jewish church in which he and
his immediate followers had been sedulously trained,
and to the existing social and political order into
which they had been born. It must have been a
transcendently-designed and anomalous church, char-
acterized by several differentiating features.

I. It was both a divine and a human church ;
that is, a church in which both divine and human
elements were blended in evenly balanced and har-
monious proportions. In respect to its origin, its
essential qualities, its vital spirit, its ultimate ideal,
it was divine, perfect, immutable. But in respect
to its membership, its external expression or organic
form, its administration, its actual moral and spirit-
ual attainment, it was human, imperfect, changeable.

II. Its proper, God-designed plane or sphere of
being and action was morally above, separate from,
and independent of all human associations whatso-
ever; yet hostile to no truth or good in any of
them and contending against their follies, errors,
evils by no other than beneficent and uninjurious
agencies, without wrong or harm to any human being.
In regard to worldly, sword-sustained governments,
claiming authority and exercising arrogated power
over its members, peaceable submission was enjoined
upon all concerned, even to the extent of personal
suffering and martyrdom, regarding such govern-
ments as in some rightful sense ordained of God

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 23

for the general good of communities, states, and
nations ; and, in their aggregate, of all mankind.

III. It was a purely voluntary association under
the leadership of Christ. Its members came
together originally of their own free will, and
could remain or withdraw as they might choose.
In the exercise of the same liberty were new mem-
bers received and discharged. At the same time
the body was empowered to extend its fellowship to
those wishing to enter it or to withdraw or with-
hold it for reasons deemed sufficient. Questions
of duty or policy were determined by general voice
or consent obtained without compulsion or restraint,
and no dernier resort to violence or death-dealing
force was allowable.

IV. It was a self-providing, self-subsisting, self-
governing, self-protecting body in respect to all the
real necessities of its own members and their legiti-
mate dependents ; none of these being left to the
providence, charity, or humanity of the outside
world or of any of its eleemosynary institutions
for the supply of anything essential to the welfare of
body, mind, or spirit, individually or associatively, —
absolute impossibilities alone excepted.

V. It demanded the heartfelt allegiance, devotion,
and fidelity of its adherents, first to Christ him-
self as their great head, and then to each other
as fellow-members of his body ; and also their sepa-
rate and united endeavor to preserve, sustain, pro-
mote, and honor itself by all righteous means and
at all hazards of personal cost and sacrifice, in
preference to any other association, institution, rela-

24 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

tionship, or interest of human device and appoint-
ment.

Having thus stated the five distinguishing pecu-
liarities of the primitive church of Christ I now
propose to amplify and illustrate them in their
order respectively. I will devote the remainder of
the present Discourse to the first one mentioned,
whose consideration I commend to the candid atten-
tion of my hearers.

I. "It was both a divine and a human church ;
that is, a church in which both divine and human
elements met and were blended in just and har-
monious proportions. In respect to its origin,
essential qualities, vital sj5irit, and ultimate ideal,
it was divine, perfect, immutable. But in respect
to its membership, its external expression or organic
form, its administration and actual moral and spir-
itual character in the aggregate, it was human and
therefore imperfect, changeable, and open to criti-
cism and rebuke."

There is a broad distinction between what was
divine and what was human in the constitutional
nature of the first allied group or company of the
Master's followers. I call that divine which is
immediately of or from God, inhering in His eter-
nal plan, or proceeding from that unimpeachable
order of the universe which He has ordained and
set in motion ; and that human which is immedi-
ately of and from man, — the product of his
ingenuity, skill, and handiwork. The former is
absolutely good and therefore incapable of improve-
ment or alteration for the better ; the latter imper-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 25

feet, defeetive, pervertible, and convertible, capable-
of progress towards perfection.

In what respects, then, we may ask, was the
primitive Christian church divine ?

1. In respect to its origin. God, the Father, in
some certain way raised up Christ and empowered
him to do a given work in the world. In the
prosecution of that work, the church, I repeat, was
a necessity and the product of that spirit of wisdom
and love which was given him without measure.
Moreover, it was an outgrowth and a demand of
man's inherent social nature, which is itself marked
with the sign-manual of divinity, and which in its
inherent instincts and promptings urges on to
divine results. It was not, therefore, originally of
man's invention or devising, but of that infinite and
immutable Presence which, both in and through
Christ, and in and through man's intrinsic nature
and necessity, conspired and operated to establish
and perpetuate it. And as man of himself did not
originate the church neither can he or any finite
agency destroy it. It is rooted and grounded in
God and must endure for the accomplishment of
those vast designs for which He gave it a place
in the world, and in the divine order of human
progress towards infinity.

2. In respect to its absolutely essential qualities
and characteristics. We must discriminate between
what is essential in the church and what is inci-
dental— between what is inherent and vital to its
existence and usefulness, and mere forms, expedi-
ents, conveniences, and policies. Without the

26 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

former it could not have continued in a healthy state
for any appreciable period, or done any substantial
enduring good for the human race. That is always
and forever the same, partaking of the divine nature,
steadfast, immutable, eternal. The latter are con-
ventional, experimental, changeable; subject to modi-
fication by time, circumstance, and varying necessity.
The church may exist with them or without them ;
with them under given conditions and without them
under other conditions. Indeed, many, if not all
of them, may be great helps at one time but great
hindrances at another. Like the scaffolding to a
building they may aid in the construction of a
noble, perfect Christian character at one stage of
advancement but be a hindrance at another — an
obstacle in the way of further development and a
disfigurement of what would be otherwise beautiful
and glorious.

What then it may be asked are some of the abso-
lute essentials of the true Christian church — the
ideal church of Christ ? They may be tabulated under
the several heads of Cardinal Objects, Theological
Faith, Personal Righteousness, Principles of Social
Progress and Order, Established Methods of Organi-
zation and Administration. Practically, and as a work-
ing basis for church activity as well as for the existence
of a church, they are resolvable into truths to be
believed and acknowledged, and duties to be per-
formed and fulfilled in character and life. These
truths and duties were plainly taught by Christ and
enjoined upon his disciples as the basis of all their
thought and conduct and as the foundation upon

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 27

which they were to build his church. They have
come down to us in the New Testament records,
and are to be interpreted upon a fair construction
for use in our own day and time. As the early
believers in Jesus employed them, so are we to do.
They are as essential to true church affiliation and
co-operation — to the existence and appointed work
of a true Christian church now as then. They are
divine, they are immutable, they are the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And the acceptance
of them, confessed faith in them, the acknowledged
obligation to live according to them, constitute alike
the ground-work of Christian character and the sub-
structure of any Christian institution.

And in declaring for the truths and duties indi-
cated, it will at once be seen that I am not declar-
ing for any of the popular confessions or creeds of
the now existing church in any of its differing
schools, denominations, sects, under whatsoever
partisan name they play their respective parts in
the complex drama of the ecclesiastical world. On
the other hand, I have no doubt that many, nay,
most of these, are radically defective and need a
thorough reconstruction in order to have them
really Christian — in happy accord with the pre-
cepts and principles of the Master. My claim and
my contention are for these and these alone as
the great, primary, fundamental qualities and char>
acteristics of the Christian church as Jesus formed
it and breathed into it the breath of life.

3. In respect to its inmost, vital, animating
spirit, the church, as Christ founded it, was divine.

:28 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

perfect, immutable. We must in the interest of
intelligence and a clear understanding, distinguish
between the spirit and the letter of the church.
"The letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life." Dis-
crimination must also be made between its intrin-
sic, central, vitalizing spirit and the more external,
impulsive, evanescent temper or state of mind that
at different times and under different circumstances
actuates and characterizes its membership, clergy
and laity alike. The latter is often sadly inter-
mingled with, if not over-mastered by, selfish ambi-
tion, pride, jealousy, arrogance, and even cruelty
and revenge, damaging alike to personal excellence
and worth and to the character, standing, and use-
fulness of the church itself in its organic capacity.
The former is pure, sweet, holy, compassionate,
forgiving, merciful — the true Christlike spirit, born
of the spirit of God and partaking of His essential
nature in all its various impulses and manifestations.
No doubt much of this spirit entered into the primi-
tive Christian church when "the multitude of them
that believed were of one heart and of one soul ;
neither said any of them that aught of the things
which he possessed were his own ; but they had
all things common." " And great grace was upon
them all." And I think we may safely conclude
that notwithstanding all the imperfections, errors,
and abuses that during the passing centuries have
crept into, corrupted, and disgraced the nominal
church of Christ, it has never wholly lost it origi-
nal character in this particular, has never been
wholly abandoned by the true, the real spirit of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 29*

the Master and given over body and soul to the
domination of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
but has had dwelling somewhere within its fellow-
ship, more or less active, this central divine element
which some day will rise once more to supremacy
and renew the heart and life of Christendom.

It is this central spirit which has always giverr
the church vitality and kept it alive to this day.
Often cramped in its struggles for a freer expres-
sion, for a more abounding life, for a larger empire y
often partially smothered by unworthy devotees
and the arrogance of the outside world, it has yet
maintained somewhat of its inherent energy, and
found a congenial home in a small but constantly
increasing number of those whose hearts have
responded to its appeals and given it welcome, and
whose lives, transformed and preserved from all
evil by its regenerating power, have borne convinc-
ing testimony to the divinity whence it sprang and
with which it was animated. It is this native,
incorruptible, vitalizing' force which, still abiding^
shall yet slough off the rotten accretions of hypoc-
risy and deceit, the gross incumbrances of worldly
display and material aggrandizement, the barnacles
of false doctrine and intolerant assumption that
are still over-burdening the nominal Christian-
church and hindering its progress, and give to it
free course in its God-appointed and all-conquering
way through the world in the years and ages ahead.
Whoever dreams that the church is to die out, or
be superseded by some new agency on a different
basis and under a different inspiration, or that what

30 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

is called civilization, science, art, philosophy, is to
elevate mankind and bring in the divine kingdom
without its aid — without its inmost quickening
spirit, is dreaming in vain. Its influence in the
future upon the progress and destiny of humanity
will be greater than in the past, and the radiance
of its hitherto twilight, dispelling the mists and
shadows that have so long obscured its beams,
will increase and brighten unto the perfect day.
And chiefly because its all-animating spirit is divine
and clothed with instrinsic power to overcome all
obstacles, impart health and strength to the moral
and spiritual capabilities of men, and evolve an
order of life upon the earth conformed to the will
of the infinite Father of all souls.

4. The church of Christ is divine again in its
ideal of spiritual fellowship and of the relation of
man to man in all the varied intercourse of life.
This ideal of the church, prefiguring its ultimate
design and attainment, is one thing; the actual is
another, and, as has been, still is, and for a long time
will be, quite a different thing. The ideal is what
exists in the thought of God as the final result
of what he ordains in any given case. In the
matter of the church, the ideal is a group, asso-
ciated body, or community of men and women
believing in and submissive to the great principles
of truth and righteousness revealed in Jesus Christ
and animated by the spirit of love to God and man,
drawn to each other and bound together by the
cords of a spiritual attraction, sympathy, and com-
patibility, and exemplifying a reign of holiness, love,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 31

unity, brotherhood, peace. The actual in the matter
of the church is what really exists in respect to
its membership, organic form, administration, moral
status, spiritual life, activity in doing good, service
of God and humanity, at any period of its history.
The ideal is the archetype, the model, the promise
of what will be when the original purpose of God
in the existence of the church is accomplished.
And that ideal is ever the same. It is the vision
of things yet to come, of the great end towards
which the church should be evermore striving ; it
is the pattern fashioned by God's own hand, made
known in the Gospel of His dear Son, disclosed to
the thought of pure and holy souls, after which the
church should be evermore moulding itself, and to
the distinctive features of which it should be ever
conforming its character and life. As that ideal
is made actual by the church, the church exempli-
fies rnore and more the true meaning of the Chris-
tian religion ; when the two become identical, when
the ideal becomes the actual, then will God's king-
dom have come and His will be done on earth as
it is in Heaven.

In what respects, we may now inquire, was the
primitive Christian church human .?

I. In respect to its membership. In its organic
capacity, as a company of the disciples of Christ, the
church was composed of human beings, in their
very nature and degree of development, imperfect,
ignorant in many particulars, liable to error, to
folly, and to wrong doing. They had indeed noble
endowments, grand capabilities, the germs of virtues

32 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and excellences that could grow and blossom into
a perfect character — into Christlikeness and the
moral image of the infinite God. But they must
needs pass through long processes of education,
discipline, and experience, in order to attain their
destined perfectness. Entering as pupils in the
school of the great Teacher, a few were apt to
learn and make rapid progress in the better life to
which they were called ; more were dull to appre-
hend moral and spiritual truth and slow to appro-
priate it to personal use ; while too many were
carnally-minded and basely inclined, yielding readily
to temptation, and the solicitations of evil passions
and evil men, and so either falling away through
sheer weakness from their professedly high aims,
or wilfully apostatizing from the truth as it was in
Jesus, and prostituting their transcendent privileges
to ignoble, selfish, reprehensible ends. And as it
was with the church at the outset in this regard,
so has it been in all ages of Christian history, and
so to a great extent it is today.

2. In respect to its organization and construct-
ive form. There is no such thing as a divine
method of operation for church or state ; no such
thing as a God-appointed way of accomplishing
contemplated ends, so far as concerns outward
instrumentalities and appliances. These are strictly
human devices, the products of human ingenuity,
skill, wisdom, and therefore more or less faulty
and inadequate. It was so in the beginning of the
Christian regime, is now, and ever will be. Besides,
forms of government and means of accomplishment

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 33

vary with the varying conditions, circumstances, and
historic eras under which they exist. What may
serve at one time an important end will prove
utterly insufficient at another. And what is well
suited to one class of mind or one stage of moral
development will be worth nothing to other minds
or at other stages of progress. People outgrow
forms and organizations, as they outgrow their
garments, and must have new ones. What is
adapted to an infant church may be wholly useless
to an old, long-established one. Existing needs,
surrounding circumstances, and numerous consid-
erations of a practical nature must go far to deter-
mine what mode of government, what plans of
operation shall be instituted at any given period
to further most effectually the great objects for
which the Christian church was founded.

Much time and labor have been expended during
the Christian ages, not infrequently at much loss
of the Christian spirit and to the great detriment
of the church itself, in discussing whether the Papai
or the Episcopal, the Presbyterian or the Congre-
gational forms of church government were scriptural
and obligatory or not — whether or not either one
of these was to be adopted and maintained at all
hazards and against all opposition. Also, as to
the propriety and authority of popes, cardinals,
bishops, priests, presbyters, councils, and the like.
All of which goes to demonstrate how human,
how subject to circumstances, to the tastes, the
predilections, the fallible opinions, and often the
mere whims and passions of men, the church

34 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

has ever been in respect to its organization,
constructive form, and .method of action, in the
different departments of its institutional life.

3. The church is emphatically human, moreover,
in respect to its administration — in respect to the
management of its various offices and functions.
As a matter of course those appointed in any period
of its history to have charge of its affairs, to serve
at its altars, to direct its activities, to execute its
purposes in any particular, — its ministers, priests,
official servants, of whatsoever order or name, how-
ever divinely called, ordained, inspired, or assisted
from the unseen world, were, nevertheless, men
like their subordinate fellow Christians, clothed with
all the attributes of a distinctive personality and
power of self-determination, and therefore imperfect
in judgment and liable to greater or less mistake.
In the discharge of their respective duties, much
was left to their own discretion, practical good
sense, and moral perceptivity. Human themselves,
they were in a human world, working with human
materials, amid human difficulties, under everchang-
ing human circumstances ; subject to more or less
error in consideration of their essential personality
they were also subject to great difficulties and trials,
as they were in danger of being thwarted in their
best aims and efforts ; and it is no wonder that
their administration of church affairs was more or
less open to criticism and even to reprobation, or
that the church as an institution, as an active
working body in the world, as a hierarchy claiming
a divine origin on the one hand, and the respect, con-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 35

fidence, homage, support of right-minded, humane,
devout. God-fearing people on the other, should at
the same time display its own weakness, imperfec-
tion, mutability, capacity for retrogression as well
for reformation and progress ; in other words, dis-
play its own human side in a marked and unmistak-
able degree.

In these three particulars, to say nothing of less
important ones, does the church in all its history
show that, whatever may be the extent of the
divine element in its essential nature, character,
and distinguishing purpose, it has also a purely
human element entering into the very blood and
fiber of its being and characterizing every depart-
ment and manifestation of its intrinsic life. Nor
is there anything in this humanism of the church
which is to its disparagement or which vititates its
claims to the confidence, veneration, and love of
mankind ; anything derogatory to its assumption of
indwelling divinity, of being a God-commissioned
instrumentality for the edification, regeneration, and
perfecting of the race ; anything fatal to its final
supremacy in the world, or discouraging to those
sincerely endeavoring to actualize its divine ideal
within its own membership and throughout the
earth. But the contrary rather. For if the church
were deemed wholly divine, there could be no
ground for hope of its improvement, or for effort
to carry it forward to perfection ; if it were deemed
wholly human, with nothing of the divinity in it,
the case would be equally hopeless ; for it would
lack the essential life -principle, the germ from which

ab PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

all true growth and ultimate attainment of the ideal
perfection must spring, and so, would have to be
transcended or set aside as of no intrinsic, immuta-
ble, imperishable value. But being truly divine in
certain regards and as truly human in others, a
living faith in and use of the former must, beyond
all doubt or peradventure, eventuate in the com-
plete renovation and purification of the latter, so
that the great head of the church may at length,
as the Apostle says, "present it to himself a glori-
ous church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it be holy and without blemish."

In bringing this discourse to a close I am
impressed to remark that the ecclesiastics of what-
ever age who overlooked the distinction of divine
and human in the church and regarded it as wholly
divine committed an error resulting in most mis-
chievous consequences. Out of it arose naturally
the assumption of the infallibility of the church in
both its legislative and judicial capacity, and the
decrees and verdicts of popes, councils, and other
officials became engines of tyranny and persecution,
while creeds and dogmas bearing the stamp of
authority were invested with such sacredness and
claims upon the human conscience that criticism and
dissent became deadly heresy and schismatism, to
be suppressed and crushed out by force if necessary
in order to save the sanctity of the church. Under
such circumstances, reform was well nigh impossi-
ble, and abuses and corruptions to a fearful extent
came in to degrade the church and parallyze its
influence as a redemptive agency in the life of
mankind.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 37

On the other hand, scarcely less mischief has
been done by those who at any period of Christian
history have maintained that the church is in all
respects and has ever been only human, with no
divine element in it whatsoever. This view of it
removes the chief reason for its claims to the
respect, confidence, and veneration of men, as it
also sets at naught the chief source of its uplifting,
regenerating power. If wholly human it must of
necessity partake of the folly, imperfection, idiosyn-
crasy, unreason, and impiety ever found in human
nature, and must be at every point and at all times
open not simply to criticism and correction but to
suspicion and distrust. Under such conditions it
could win to its membership and support but few,
if any, intelligent, conscientious, devout adherents,
and do but little to raise the world to a higher
level and bring the better kingdom in.

But in regarding the church as both human and
divine, as I have defined and applied those terms,
we have not only a rational view of the matter
and one justified by a reference to fundamental
principles and the facts of the case, but one that
gives us a working theory upon which to base all
efforts to serve God and man in this department
of moral responsibility. The divine gives sanctity,
unity, permanence, authority to the church. The
human, while accounting for its 'errors, mistakes,
absurdities, abuses, outrages, affords likewise ample
scope for variety of opinions and conduct, for flexi-
bility of method, for adaption to constantly chang-
ing circumstances and needs, and allows the fullest

38 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

exercise of wholesome, individual liberty. The
divine furnishes a standard by which the human
is to be tried — a test to which all incongruities,
mistakes, immoralities, are to be brought and con-
demned, and also provides the means, the motives,
the principles, the spirit, which are inherently capa-
ble of working out a reformation and unfolding
into something better, and ultimately into the very
best ; bringing all things at length into complete
subordination to and harmony with itself. Thus
has the church in itself the promise and potency
of its own purification and perfection. Thus shall
its falsities, its crudities, its absurdities, its deformi-
ties, its corruptions, be sometime swept away, and
it shall stand forth undefiled and transcendently
glorious; a handmaid of God clothed in the immacu-
late and beautiful garments of Christlikeness.

DISCOURSE III.

THE MOBAL PLANE OF THE TBJJE CHUBCH.

"Ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of
the world." — John xv. 19.

" Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light." — i Peter ii. 9.

" Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works." — Titus ii. 14.

These texts indicate the specific theme of the
present discourse, which in my last was stated
thus, viz : —

2. " Its proper, God-designed plane of being
and action (that of the church) is morally above,
separate from, and independent of all other human
associations whatsoever ; yet hostile to no truth or
good in any of them and contending against their
follies, errors, evils, by no other than beneficent
and uninjurious forces, without wrong or harm to
any human being. In the case of worldly, sword-
sustained governments, claiming supreme authority
and exercising arrogant power over its members,
peaceable submission is enjoined upon all con-
cerned, even to the extent of personal suffering
and martyrdom, under the concession that such

40 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

governments are, in some rightful sense, ordained
of God for the general good of communities, states,
and nations, and, in their aggregate, of all
mankind."

Christianity recognizes the existence of two
worlds — two distinct states of being; — the mate-
rial, sensuous, tangible, transitory world — the
sphere of time and flesh and sense ; and the imma-
terial, super-sensuous, intangible, immortal world —
the sphere of eternal and ever-enduring realities.
It teaches that the laws, interests, and concerns
of the latter are supreme in the divine economy of
the universe, and to be so regarded by its disciples,
and that all that pertains to the former are strictly
subordinate and to be held subject thereto; the
kingdom of God being first and all-important, all
beside being secondary and subservient. It insists
that what is true, right, and good for man as a
denizen of the immortal world is best for him in the
mortal sphere as well, and that he should govern
himself accordingly. Upon the doctrine thus incul-
cated Christ founded his church. He declared that
his kingdom was not of this world, that he himself
was not and that his true disciples likewise were
not. "They are not of the world," he said, "even
as I am not of the world."

Now what are we to understand by these attesta-
tions ? What did the Master design to teach by
them ? Not certainly that his kingdom was not in
this present material, mortal sphere, incipiently, at
least ; not that he was not in it, nor that his dis-
ciples were not in it. Of course not. But though

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 41

in the world they were not of the world. That is,
they were not of a worldly, fleshly, sensuous temper
or frame of mind, but in their ruling loves,
animating desires, and leading aims they were
quickened and inspired from the spiritual realm.
Whereas the generality of mankind think and act
upon what may be termed the material, outward
plane of life, Jesus and his true followers dwelt
upon a higher, the spiritual and immortal plane.
And between these two planes there is a radical
moral difference as illustrated in the different
characters and careers of those who occupy them
and partake of their distinguishing spirit. And we
are thus led to consider, —

I. That the proper plane of the pure Christian
Church is "morally above, distinct from, and inde-
pendent of all other human associations whatso-
ever." Men being social in their very nature
incline to each other, unite in groups or com-
panies clustering around some common center,
enter into relations or form organizations for all
the various purposes suggested by ambition, inter-
est, or affection, in which any given number of
persons feel a common concern. Some of these
are small as to numbers and transient as to dura-
tion ; others are larger and of more permanent
existence. Some are purely voluntary, others more
or less compulsory. Some proceed directly from
the native impulses and demands of the human
constitution ; others are devices that are gotten up
to supply some supposed or real need, or to meet,
for the time being, some special demand of business,

42 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

or politics, or education, or pleasure, or religion,,
serving their proper end and then passing away.
The more conspicuous and permanent of these
affiliated bodies are the family, the neighborhood
or primary community, the township, the state,,
and the confederated nation. All others, good, bad,
and indifferent, are implied or represented in these.

Now my affirmation is that the Christian Church
as an associate body instituted for the purpose of
representing before the world the Primitive Chris-
tianity of the Gospel, in its social bearings and
aspects quite as much as in its relations to individ-
ual thought, feeling, and conduct, was designed to
occupy and act upon a social plane morally and
religiously higher than that of the family, general
society, the state, or the nation ; a plane morally
distinct from and independent of each and all of
these. It was not to take its ethical code from
or shape its conduct by either of these or any
other human organization or authority claiming
jurisdiction over it. It was to accept no law or
dictum of man, whether formulated by legislature
or council, whether executed by magistrate or court,
whether enforced by penal statute or military power,
but only the divine law as expounded by Jesus
Chri.ct ; the word of the Lord falling from the lips of
prophets and seers speaking as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. It was in no case to lower
the divine standard of righteousness, for the sake
of conforming to any of these human associations,
subserving any of their interests, yielding to any
of their demands, compromising with any of their

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 4^

unchristian requirements, or even averting their
hostility and persecution. It was not to be con-
formed to the world or to any of its instituted
activities any farther than they were in harmony
with Christ's law of love to God and man, but to
be transformed by the renewing of its mind and
thus to become itself a transforming power in the
midst of the generations unto the end of time.
It was not to follow the dictates of worldly policy*-
of long established custom, of self-constituted author-
ity ; it was to lead the world in the way of right-
eousness and true holiness, in the grand march of
progress, in the millennial procession.

Otherwise there was no need of it and it had
no distinctive use in the world. It could be only
a worldly convenience, a bond-servant of worldly
power, an instrument of political engineering or of
social respectability, a tool of cunning priestcraft
in unholy alliance with worldly statecraft. Alas^
that, as a matter of fact, the Christian Church,
since the days of Constantine, has been to a large
extent thus prostituted. Alas, that even now so
many of its professed ministers lean upon the arm
of civil government for support, or covet the
protection of the civil law with all its pains
and penalties in case of attack, Alas, that the
great mass of its members know of no higher rule
of life than the statutes of the state or nation,
which, in given cases, authorize and require the
maiming and premeditated slaughter of those whom
their confessed Master commands them to love,
bless, and pray for — all under pretext of loyalty

44 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to their country and of service to the community
at large. All such, notwithstanding their nominal
membership in the church of Christ, live and move
and have their being morally and socially on the
plane of the unregenerate world, and follow Jesus
no longer or further than their allegiance to the
state or nation permits. When the decrees of
the state or nation conflict with the principles
of the Gospel they renounce their fealty to those
principles, and what adds to the enormity of the
offence, pray God, in person or by chosen chaplains,
to bless them in doing so — in violating what they
profess to believe is God's holy and perfect law.
What impiety can be greater than this ? Let us
now consider

2. That the true Christian Church " is hostile
to no truth or good in any other human associa-
tions and at the same time contends against their
follies, errors, abuses, iniquities, but only by beneficent
and uninjurious forces " ; the weapons of its warfare
being "not carnal but spiritual." There is more
or less of truth and good in human governments,
for instance. They have their proper place in the
divine economy and under God serve important
€nds. But their place and use is below the plane
of the true church. They must not be allowed to
overrule and reduce to their own moral level
the church ; but the church, on the other hand,
must labor to purify, elevate, and transfigure them
and bring them into accord with its own ideal.
That is its mission in its relation to them ; not to
ignore them but to regenerate them ; not to subvert

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 45-

them but to show them the more excellent way
and to make them by moral power and the force
of example altogether what they ought to be,,
reproductions under earthly conditions of the gov-
ernment of God. Approving and commending them
in what is right, good, and true in their organic
forms and administration, it must in fidelity to its
founder and Lord reprove and condemn them in
what is wrong, evil, and false, testifying uncom-
promisingly and contending unremittingly against
the same, yet without arrogance and tyranny,,
without compulsion by violent measures, or coer-
cion by injurious, legal pains or penalties. It must
conform to the spirit and substance of the Master's-
requirement in all respects, bearing witness to the
truth, exposing and denouncing error and unright-
eousness in high places and low places, sufferings
patiently any affronts or indignities incurred through
fidelity and devotion to Christ, but doing harm to-
no one, not even the worst enemy. That the great
founder of the church exemplified all this is as
certain as that he ever appeared in the world, and
that he enjoined it without reservation or qualifi-
cation upon his followers, both as individuals and
as a religious body, is equally certain. And the
church must live and act upon the same principles
and under the impulses of the same spirit or it
betrays its trust and forfeits its Christian name.
Unlike the Jewish and Mohammedan hierarchies,
the Christian Church can prosecute its work, extend
its empire, achieve its victories only by the persua-
sive, quickening, renovating j)ower of truth and love;.

46 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

never by the arm of physical violence, never by
the bloodshed and slaughter of any of the children
of God. Had it scrupulously acted after this fashion
it would, ere this, have made far greater conquests
than it has now done, and carried the world much
farther ahead in its march to the millennium. It
will regain its lost opportunity and go speedily on
its triumphing way only when it returns to its
cast-off allegiance to Christ and shapes its course
by his irrepealable law of eternal righteousness
under the inspiration of perfect love to God and
man. We will consider

3. That when civil government, maintaining its
prerogatives and executing its edicts by the power
of the sword, claims absolute authority and juris-
diction over the members of the Christian Church,
they are enjoined by their acknowledged leader
and lawgiver to peaceable submission to its behests ;
obeying cheerfully when they are founded in justice
and serve to promote the common welfare, refusing
firmly but kindly when they are unjust and oppres-
sive, and yielding to the force of superior numbers
and penal inflictions even to the extent of suffering
martyrdom for righteousness' sake, without resort
to weapons of carnal warfare or conspiring to
revolution by violence and military might. And
this on the before-mentioned ground that in some
certain sense these governments are ordained of
God, and under the divine overruling conduce to
the general social order, comfort, welfare, progress,
and happiness.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 47

Under this proposition and as subjects of that
kingdom which is not of this world the members
of Christ's church are not obliged to be co-acting
participants in the affairs of civil governments, to
assist in running their administrative machinery, or
to obey any of their unchristian statutes or injunc-
tions, but to yield cheerful compliance to their
demands as taxpayers, as willing subjects of their
rightful authority, as supporters of all measures
calculated to promote the intellectual, the domestic,
the social, and moral weH-being and betterment of
any or all of the different classes of the people
over whom they hold sway ; never, under any pre-
text whatsoever, stirring up hatred, or engaging in
rebellion against them, or promoting any sedition,
insurrection, or violent outbreak, involving injury,
bloodshed, and death to any human being. A poor
government is better than no government at all,
and a government exceedingly faulty in some things
is better than anarchy — moral and social chaos.
Absolute personal independence, extreme individ-
ualism— every man for himself and no one for
another — is an impossibility; were it possible, it
would be undesirable as utterly opposed to the
genius of Christianity, as obstructive of the opera-
tion of some of the strongest impulses of human
nature, and as mischievous in its inevitable tendency
and effect upon personal character and in society,
among the nations and throughout the earth.

Some form of government there must be among
men ; some form of government there will be,
charlatans and theorists to the contrary notwith-

48 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Standing. It is a product, a necessity of human
nature. It is provided for in the constitution of
man, in the economy of the universe. It has been
from the beginning of the world ; it must be to its
end. In the early periods of human existence on
the earth, in the early stages of human develop-
ment, the form of government was simple, crude,
imperfect ; the germ merely of what was subse-
quently to be. Out of it, in time, came something
more elaborate, complex, organic, but still partial,
defective, rudimentary. Among morally degraded,
brutal, savage, bloodthirsty people, government
assumed, as was most natural, a corresponding
character. It enacted barbarous laws ; it sanctioned
robbery, piracy, and many forms of crime ; it estab-
lished cruel and vindictive punishments ; it indulged
in war and armed conflicts between man and man ;
it gloried in the number of its battle-fields, in
the hecatombs of human beings it had slaugh-
tered, in the vast areas it had drenched with human
blood.

All this was incidental to human nature, an out-
growth of the baser side of human nature. But
human nature has another side — a higher, better
side — which was all the while prompting to
better things — to kindliness, to pity, to mercy, to
charity. And in the order of divine providence
this kindlier, gentler, noble side of human nature
was destined to soften and subdue the baser side,
to acquire ascendency over it, and ultimately bring
it into complete subjection to itself. Hence amid
the rapine and bloodshed of savage tribes and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 49

brutish nations there were other agencies at work,
human and divine, to restrain and overcome them,
to mitigate their horrors and limit their power.
And these higher agencies, as time has gone on,
have become proportionally stronger and more
commanding, until in many portions of the earth
they are largely in control, holding the lower
elements of the human constitution — its animal
propensities, its selfish ambitions, and sensual
passions, its brutality and blood-thirstiness, under
much restraint and in comparative subjection to
themselves. So has the life of the world risen in
the scale of moral values, and the governments of
the nations have become humanized, civilized, and,
in a certain accommodated sense, Christianized.
That is, they have been modified, elevated, trans-
formed, until they incorporate many of the precepts
and somewhat of the spirit of Christianity in their
legislative enactments, allow Christian influences
to modify public policy, and display many virtues
and excellences whose leading features are derived
directly or indirectly from the teachings of the
Nazarene. At the same time they all, in important
respects, fail to recognize the absolute supremacy
of the religion of Christ, and even set at defiance
some of his plainest and most essential teachings
and trample in the dust as of nothing worth, in
their fundamental law and administrative polity,
some of the divinest principles by which he sought
to enlighten, uplift, and redeem the world. In other
words they all occupy still a lower plane, morally
and socially and politically, than that • which he

60 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

himself occupied and upon which he established
his church.

Now I claim and maintain that it is the dis-
tinctive mission or function of the Christian Church
to teach, exemplify, and operate those great moral
forces which may be comprehensively termed the
law of God, and which are the only agencies capa-
ble of regenerating mankind, and thus hasten their
ascendency in the world ; not thwarting or hindering
in the meantime any of the lower agencies of
governmental creation and control whose harsher
dictations and restraints unchristianized peoples,
states, and nations, will not and cannot dispense
with or displace by higher and nobler ones. The
beneficent Author of all things has wisely adapted
certain forms of social order to varying grades of
human development in the onward progress of the
race from the lowest to the highest. Gross natures
evolve, providentially, correspondingly gross, crude,
barbarous laws, customs, etc. ; higher and more
refined ones, those suited to their state of advance,
ment ; from the most brutish and savage hordes to
the most exalted of saints. Truly Christlike men
and women under such an economy can use — are
required to use — only Christlike means and methods
in whatever they undertake without interfering with
the ordinary operations of those who are unwilling
to govern or be governed by such means and
methods. This is a wise and salutary feature of
Primitive Christianity. It makes the church repre-
senting that Christianity radically progressive and
peacefully conservative; gradually drawing the sus-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 51

ceptible and willing to a higher plane of moral and
social life, without impairing the legitimate result
of the efforts of those whose purposes and plans are
not yet conformed to the requirements of the great
Teacher.

And in this respect we can but note the moral
difference existing between the genius of pure
Christianity and that of Democracy or any other
form of worldly civil government. The former
insists on abstinence from all forms of brutish vio-
lence in prosecuting its work and in reliance only
upon the benign might of truth and love ; agitating
for no violent upheavals or revolutions involving
bloodshed and slaughter for the redress of griev-
ances, the extinction of abuses, or the promotion
of needed reforms. While the latter is ready to
inflict vengeful punishment upon offenders ; to repel
insults and invasions by fire and sword ; to appeal
to selfish ambition to maintain supremacy ; to keep
alive the spirit of warlike enthusiasm ; to gratify
the baser elements of its constituency and intimi-
date enemies ; and to proclaim to all the world its
haughty motto, '' Peaceably, if we can ; forcibly, if
we must." Ready too, is it to wade through seas
of blood to crush out tyrants or display its own
power; reckless of whether or not it may better
the condition of mankind. Whenever the church
has led, or aided and abetted human governments
in schemes involving bloodshed and death, it has
turned its back on Christ, or crucified him afresh,
been shorn of moral and spiritual power, and proved
a curse to the world. Not by destroying men's lives

52 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

but by saving them, not by causing men to emulate
the tiger and hyena is human progress promoted,
but by rendering them personally Christlike, and
inducing them to act in all their relations to each
other in obedience to the Christian law of perfect
love. And thus is indicated most clearly the pur-
pose, the character, the proper business of the true
Church, the sole reason for its existence.

Just to the extent that any family, community,
state, or nation is illumined with the light and imbued
with the spirit of Christ's Gospel is its elevation
and progress in all that ennobles and blesses
humanity. Without that light and that spirit no
amount of mere intellect, of industrial skill, of
material wealth, of worldly power, of aesthetic
attainment, will avail to bring in the kingdom of
God. Nor will any number of legislative restric-
tions, or police regulations, or political changes, or
governmental revolutions, however promising, insure
that much to-be-desired, glorious result. It is the
power behind all worldly powers that noiselessly
and slowly lifts the human race to purer airs and
grander visions. This is not implying that other
agencies and forces are of no account in the mat-
ter— do no good — but that they are inferior to,
and insufficient without, those higher instrumentali-
ties whereby men are rendered more and more like
Christ in spirit, conduct, and character. The wis-
dom of this world thinks otherwise and will, no
doubt, repeat, perhaps for ages yet, its old ever-
flattering, ever-disappointing experiment ; striving
to redeem the world by worldly devices, policies.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 53

and instrumentalities ; striving to cast out Satan by-
Satanic means, striving to establish Christ's king-
dom by unchristian agencies.

Such being the case it becomes of indispensable
importance that the church itself be delivered from
its degeneracy ; that the blindness and illusion
whereby the mass of nominal Christians are infat-
uated with . the notion that the world is to be
Christianized by worldly methods and devices,
be put forever away. Through this infatuation the
church fell from its primitive estate in the days of
Constantine, as I have before shown, deceived by
promises of increased numbers and influence, by the
deceitful sophistries of ecclesiastical domination and
political ambition, which led to the formation of an
unholy alliance with the state, that robbed it of
much of its power for good to the human race ; that
proved a practical surrender to political, worldly
supremacy and dictation. Thinking to use the
state for Christian ends, or to employ the policy
and mechanism of the state to Christianize the
world, the church became de-christianized and was
made a tool of by the state for purposes of aggran-
dizement and fame quite foreign to the spirit and
aim of the Gospel, And this practical treason to
Christ — this subserviency to the state has con-
tinued to this day. And it is a curious fact
that a majority of even liberal and progressive
Protestants, while denouncing the union of church
and state, still hold fast to the idea of political
Christianity, of making Christian politicians, Chris-
tian patriots, Christian legislators. Christian warriors

54 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

even, and Christian mammon-servers ; thus building
up what they call Christian civilization, which is
little more than a semi-barbaric civilization at best.
The church has, to a large extent, capitulated to the
state, caters to its wishes and plans, and in the last
resort bows implicitly to its behests.

What sort of a Christianity or Christian church
is that which thus demeans itself ; which waits upon,
bows to, and quails before the civil power ? Which
will not or cannot be the vanguard of the world's
progress ? Which deems it an honor to be the
handmaid of governments that are characterized
largely by political chicanery and rest on deadly
force ? Which waits on state or national legislation,
governmental machinery, penal coercion, constabulary
vigilance, and the combined might of armies and
navies to put an end to sin and bring in righteous-
ness? Which pleads the impracticability of living
by the precepts and example of Christ till the
march of civilization or the coming of the millen-
nium makes it easy and comfortable to do so.?

It is a Christianity from which Christ has been
in important respects eliminated ; a church emas-
culated and shorn of much of its original, God-
derived power to renovate and perfect humanity.
Such a Christianity and such a church as its repre-
sentative and working agency befit those who put
confidence in princes, who trust worldly instrumen-
talities for gaining heavenly attainments, who think
the divine kingdom can be built on the insecure
foundation of political expediency and state policy.
We need to transcend all such delusions, and come
into the possession of that excellency which the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 55

Master taught and exemplified. Oh, Christ of God,
illumine and sanctify the minds and hearts of thy
people that they may know and do thy holy and
perfect will ! Oh, Church of the Lord Jesus, arise,
shine in thy pristine splendor ; move forward on
thine own plane of being and action, morally above
and independent of all merely human devices and
associations. So shall thou be the light of the
world, the salt of the earth, the regenerative agency
by which a new heaven and a new earth, wherein
dwell righteousness and peace, shall be built, and
the divinely appointed destiny of mankind in this
present state of existence shall be fulfilled.

O Bride of the Lamb, as thou claimest to be,
Why seemeth the world so attractive to thee?
What sinful ambition inclines thee to roam,
With strangers and enemies far from thy home?
Say, why are thy garments, once modest and white,
Nowaorn and polluted and hateful to sight?
What wiles of the tempter have led thee to stray
So far from the Lord's required straight, narrow way ?
To surge to and fro with the worlds selfish train,
And pay thy devotions in Mammon's false fane?
How strangely thou cleavest to objects of earth !
To things that in flesh and in sense have their birth !
Yet we hope in God's time thy conversion to hail,
When the light of His mercy shall with thee prevail;
When the voice of His spirit shall speak from the skies,
Shall bid thee from treach'ry and guilt to arise.
Then thou wilt cast off thy garments of shame,
Be clothed in new raiment and worthy Christ's name.
No more wilt thou be the handmaid of the state.
But its leader in all that is true, good, and great;
'Neath thy scepter the kingdom of God will embrace
All the children of men, the entire human race.

DISCOURSE IV.
THE TBUE CHURCH A VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION',

" If any man will come after me let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me." — Ltike ix. 23.

" If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him
not ; for I came not to judge the world but to save the world-
He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one
that judgeth him; the word that I Have spoken, the same
shall judge him in the last day." — /o^n xii. 47, 48.

"If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee
as a heathen man and a publican." — Matt, xviii. 17.

" Yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a
brother." — i Thess. iii. 15.

In defining the constitutional nature of Christ's
Church in a former discourse, the third distinctive
feature of it was stated in these words, to wit: —
" It was a purely voluntary association under the
leadership of Christ. Its members came together
originally of their own free will, and could remain
or withdraw as they might choose. In the exercise
of the same liberty new members were received or
discharged. At the same time the church was
empowered to extend its fellowship to those who
wished to enter it, or withdraw or withhold the
same for reasons deemed sufficient. Questions of
duty or policy were determined by general voice
or consent, obtained without compulsion or restraint ;

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 67

and no dernier resort to violence or death-dealing
force was allowable." To the discussion of this
proposition, I now invite attention.

I. That the statement is substantially correct
must be so obvious to thoughtful readers of the
New Testament that to cite texts or go at length
into any attempt at formal demonstration would be
superfluous. In the very nature of the case Christ
could not have founded a church of compulsory
membership, to be maintained and governed by
arbitrary rules and resorts to physical force. Such
a course would have been contrary to the essential
spirit and fundamental principles which he pre-
ceptively taught and by which he lived. Neither
his religion, his personal character, his distinctive
moral and social aims, nor the friendship of then
existing worldly governments, admitted it. It would
have been an act of extreme inconsistency on his
part and circumstantially impossible. We may,
therefore, simply glance at the beautiful fitness of
this feature of his ecclesiastical superstructure which
he designed to have express itself in a new and social
order for the governance of his disciples in all the
walks and relations of life.

He was dealing with moral agents, with human
beings, having minds and hearts of their own, upon
whom was laid the burden and obligation of personal
responsibility. Adherents, converts, numbers, were
nothing in his great scheme of improvement and
redemption unless they were gained through honest
conviction on their part, by the exercise of their
own free will, and remained by reason of their

68 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

heartfelt, loyal attachment to him, to their asso-
ciates, and to the cause they had espoused. Who-
ever should be with and for him against their own
choice would merely seem so while they were really
aliens. As he was true to himself and to his
declared principles and the spirit of his religion, he
could not force people into his church if he would,
and would not if he could. Voluntariness, absolute
freedom, characterized his entire system. As per-
sons outside must come into his church of their
own free will, so on the part of those already in
and constituting the organic body of believers there
must be equally voluntary reception of new-comers
and fellowship. None were to force themselves
upon unwilling associates. There must be a con-
senting, cordial welcome or there could be no real,
but only nominal, unity and co-operation.

Nor would it do for unworthy, discordant, apostate
persons to insist on a continuance of ecclesiastical
relations and church privileges against the wish and
remonstrance of the main body to which they were
attached, properly expressed. There must inhere
in that body a right not only to counsel and
reprove disorderly and mischief-making members
but to disown them in the last resort ; not to hate,
injure, wrong them under any pretext but to place
them where, on moral and religious grounds, they
justly belonged, outside and not inside the church,
with their own proper company. So in the adminis-
tration of all its affairs, internal and external, the
genius of the church required the cordial consent
if not the formal suffrage of the entire fraternity

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 59-

or communion. It was not for apostles, as such,.
or ministers of any grade, or influential members
to be dictators. It was for such — yea, for any
one — to express an opinion, to give counsel, to
recommend, to instruct their comrades upon any
matter, and then await the general voice of the
whole body and not in any case to arbitrarily over-
rule it. Such, so far as can be ascertained, was.
the primitive usage. And as to coercion, penal
infliction, restraint, or compulsion by force and
arms, it never cursed Christian ecclesiasticism until
the body of professed believers had prostituted
itself and cast away its original simplicity and
purity by an unholy alliance with imperial Rome.
How morally beautiful and sublime was this volun-
tary, peaceful character of the primitive Christian
church — a church recognizing and founded upon
the principles of religious liberty, upon the free
will and uncompelled choice of its members, who
constituted one common, united, harmonious. Chris-
tianized brotherhood.

2. We can now perceive by contrasting the
church in its corrupted estate with what it was as
Christ instituted it, the vast mischiefs that have
arisen in consequence of the apostacy just noted,
and especially in regard to the particular feature
of church life now under consideration. The deca-
dence began, as shown in the last volume of thia
work, in the second century, and culminated in
the fourth, when freedom of thought and action,,
involving freedom of choice, upon matters of a
religious nature, was either wholly suppressed or

•60 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

limited to an ostracised and persecuted few brave,
independent souls, who not infrequently maintained
their inborn liberty at the expense of their lives.
Starting with the assumption of exorbitant and
irresponsible power on the part of the priesthood
and the corresponding degradation of the laity, who
became the mere puppets or abject slaves of those
set to watch over them in the high places of the
church, it grew to such proportions and took upon
Itself such tyrannical forms, after the church and
state united, that all idea of religious liberty, of
freedom of conscience and conduct, was abandoned
and lost. Upheld by governmental authority and
backed by the military establishment of the Roman
empire, the church thereafter stood forth before
men and angels as a mighty despotism, unscrupu-
lous and arrogant in its claims, merciless in its
measures, policies, and modes of administration, the
antipode of the primitive church of Christ ; scarcely
one of its celestial attributes remaining. By fear
and force it multiplied its numbers and went forth
to the conquest of the world, every step of its
onward way marked by the blood of slaughtered
men. The church grew exceedingly and vast mul-
titudes were added to it ; not, however, of their own
free will, by the gentle persuasions of truth and
love and the pleadings of the Holy Spirit of God,
as in the day of Pentecost, but by the unchristian
incentive of the spear and battle-axe. Strange as
it may seem it is nevertheless true, that whole
nations in the north of Europe embraced the pro-
fession of Christianity as one of the conditions of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 6l!

peace offered them by their nominal Christian
invaders and conquerors. And whole regiments of
troops were self-baptized and admitted to the
church, standing in rivers where the water was
breast deep, some priest or bishop reading the appro-
priate ceremonial service on the bank. The religion
of peace and good will was nominally extended
through central Europe at the point of the sword.
Large numbers of Jews in the sixth, seventh, and
eighth centuries received the faith of the Gospel
as the only alternative except death. In Spain and
Gaul multitudes were dragged into the churches^
and baptized by compulsion and violence. Our
Saxon ancestors were converted by Charlemagne,,
when, exhausted and overborne by his victorious
arms, they chose to confess Christ rather than be
made slaves, as was proposed ; and for this wonder-
ful service to the church this blood-thirsty marauder
was canonized and enrolled in the category of
renowned saints. For hundreds of years this work
went on; this involuntary, compelled admission into-
the so-called Christian church of men who knew
nothing and cared nothing for the pure religion of
the Master, being addicted to all manner of iniquity
and corruption ; monsters oftentimes of cruelty and
shamelessness. By fear and force were incalculable
numbers brought into the so-called fold of the good
Shepherd ; by fear and force was every form of free,
intelligent, humane thought, outside of the estab-
lished confessions, suppressed and kept in abeyance.
Anathemas, pains, and penalties; the racks and
tortures of the inquisition; the dungeon, the gibbet^.

62 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and the stake ; the horrid accouterments, enginery,
and ferocious blood-hounds of war; threats of pur-
gatorial and endless burnings in the world to come ;
all these representatives and instrumentalities of
terror and violence were marshalled for service and
•employed to promote the strength, growth, perma-
nency, and triumph of the church — pretensedly to
extend, establish, and glorify the kingdom of the
meek and lowly Jesus on the earth.

The Protestant Reformation, notwithstanding all
the good it had in its keeping for mankind, did
not wholly disenchant the minds of its devotees of
the sophistry with which Romanized Christendom,
in the previous centuries had been beguiled in this
regard. The degrading sentiment of fear has been
made to play an important part in the development
and diffusion of Protestant principles and ideas, and
especially in gaining accessions to church member-
ship and in multiplying and extending church
activities in different portions of the globe ; notably
the fear of divine vengeance and of everlasting
torments in a future state of being. By an appeal
to this sentiment, good in its place and of great
value when rightly used, has religious liberty often
been smothered or greatly circumscribed, the deduc-
tions of reason have been disparaged or ignored,
the purest, noblest intuitions of the immortal mind
and the divinest impulses of the undying human
soul been discredited and disallowed, and the
human will itself, the God-endowed rudder of man's
life and the arbiter of his fate, put under unwhole-
some restraint or diverted from its chosen purpose.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 06

Nor is the church of Protestantdom by any means
delivered from the homage of brute force, as repre-
sented in military establishments and in civil gov-
ernment based on the war power, to be called into
exercise in extreme cases. Even in countries like
our own, where church and state have been legally
divorced, the church feels hardly secure in its rights
and prerogatives, and hardly competent to carry on
its work and execute its plans, without placing
itself under the sheltering care of the body politic
and claiming the privilege of falling back on the
state and its reserved martial force to enable it to
obtain money for its maintenance, to punish more
contumacious offenders, and protect its sanctuaries,
its altars, and its communion plate from all inva-
sion. And not infrequently does the church lend
its hearty sanction and support, its eulogies and
its prayers to the civil government, as a return for
favors received, in its preservation of barbarous
customs and vindictive punishments, and in its pros-
ecution of wars waged ostensibly in the interests
of humanity and for the extension of the realm of
Christian (?) civilization. But we may rejoice that
the reign of fear and force is essentially weakened,
that the unholy league between church and state
has been measurably dissolved, and that present
tendencies seem to furnish ground for hope that a
century more of progress will probably either bring
the great body of the church back to the personal
freedom and voluntary policy of the time of Christ
or cause a considerable portion of that body to
organize anew on a basis which shall be pre-eminently

64 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

distinguished by that most important and Christlike
characteristic.

3. The approaching regenerate church fashioned
after the pattern given us in the New Testament
will not only be free from the compulsory features
just noticed — free from the domination of fear and
force and from the embarrassments and hindrances
growing out of ecclesiastical complicity with sword-
sustained governments, but also free from all tradi-
tionary notions of birthright membership on the
one hand and of vindictive, damnatory excommuni-
cation on the other. The voluntary system as a
system founded in wisdom and commended to the
favor and support of intelligent people implies
power of reflection, of reasoning, of deliberate
judgment, as well as of uncompelled choice on the
part of those to whom it makes its appeal and by
whom it is to be adopted as a method of organized
activity or form of associate life. Now an infant
or a child of immature years is clearly incapable
of intelligent thought, of careful reasoning, of
sound judgment, and therefore unfitted both on
intellectual and moral grounds for full-fledged and
responsible membership in the Christian church.
The enrollment of such on its register is only
nominal, a matter of numbers, and not vital, adding
to the real growth and effective power of the body
ecclesiastic. It is rather a source of weakness than
of strength to that body ; it makes it seem in
appearance what it is not in fact. A church made
up entirely of such members would be of no account
as a living, working body, as an institution having

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 65

in itself inherent and reserved power to resist and
overcome the evil of the world, or to promote
and perpetuate the good. The unwisdom of incor-
porating such elements into it is therefore manifest.

And on the other hand persons within the pale
of church membership finding themselves out of
accord with the mass of their associates, either in
opinion, in moral attainment, or in spiritual experi-
ence, and so realizing that they are not in their
proper place and sphere, should be permitted to
withdraw without alienation of feeling or bitterness
of spirit on the part of any one concerned. And
certainly any one departing who bears no taint of
immorality and displays no evidences of an unchris-
tian spirit or purpose should not be followed by
denunciation, contumely, and abuse, but be allowed
to go in peace and all kindliness ; obeying the
dictates of his own judgment and conscience, form-
ing such alliances as may please him, and serving
his Maker and his fellowmen in ways and by
methods and under auspices which he honestly
thinks and believes promise more and better than
those he leaves behind for the advancement of
divine truth, of the cause of Christ, of the kingdom
of God.

In this way a wholesome and adequate discipline
can be maintained within the membership without
offence to Christian principles and the Christian
spirit, while individual independence, liberty, and
responsibility, freedom of opinion and of speech,
will be respected and encouraged and the realm
of knowledge upon sacred themes and interests will

66 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

be proportionally enlarged. The essentials of reli-
gion will under such a regime be better understood
and distinguished from non-essentials, pure Christ
likeness will be magnified, and much that is merely
incidental and comparatively unimportant, now
insisted upon and made the occasion of conflicting
parties and sects which are both a hindrance and
a disgrace to the church as a whole, will be
remanded to its proper subordinate place in the
administration of ecclesiastical affairs as well as in
the creeds of believers. And so will the progress
of truth be greatly advanced, the enfranchisement
of the human mind and the ennoblement of the
human soul be expedited, and the church, winning
the confidence and support of all high-minded and
great-hearted people, go on its way conquering and
to conquer as never before. It will head the pro-
cession in the grand march of humanity to its
destiny, and no longer be a lackey or bond-servant
to worldly governments or to an unchristian civili-
zation, as it has been for more than fifteen hundred
years. God speed the day when the eyes of mortal
men shall be gladdened by the sight of such a
church as this, a truly regenerate church, the primi-
tive church of Christ rehabilitated, reinforced, and
reinvigorated by fresh outpourings of the Spirit of
God for its holy mission. Then will there be
speedily evolved a new order of human society
among men and a civilization worthy to bear the
name Christian.

4. Another important idea suggested by the
voluntary characteristic of the true church is that

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 67

of the proper gradation of those connected with it
according to their natural or acquired capability
and their degree of development in the essentials
of the Christian life. As the church is now con-
stituted, with a few notable exceptions, it offers
but one standard of measurement, so to speak, for
its adherents and their allies ; placing them all, if
organically related to each other, on one common
level of profession, duty, and responsibility. There
is one and only one degree for the initiate, which
can never be exceeded or outgrown. The ripest
saint attains to nothing more in the ecclesiastical
curriculum than the humblest, most immature novi-
tiate. The child or convert of whatever age coming
into the church not only assents to, and professes
to believe in, the assumed essentials of faith and
practice held as sacred truth by the oldest and
most experienced members, but is counted as the
equal follower of Christ and one no less fitted for
Heaven. In such a case the chief end sought is
gained, "the great transaction's done," salvation is
secured. Nothing more is expected, nothing more,
certainly, is needed to win divine favor or insure
eternal blessedness. The idea of progress in the
religious life, of growth in Christlikeness, is not
entertained, or if entertained is not urged and
required as of vital moment. The only proof many
a church-member has of his right relations with
God and of his Christian character is the fact that
sometime in the past he went through a certain
emotional experience which was called conversion,
was duly baptized and united with the church. If

68 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

a so-called "evangelical," he is very likely looking-
back to that time as that of his highest and best
religious state, the time when he felt most the
power of divine realities, and was most at peace
with himself and with his Maker. And perhaps he
is right in this conviction. For often the aspira-
tions, the loves, the high resolves, the sweet con-
tent of such times are of brief duration. The
conditions creating them gone, they are gone also.
Or they are smothered by the manifest worldliness
of the church itself or by the cares and seductions,
the demoralizing tendencies of pleasure, business,
politics, and social life. But notwithstanding this
he rests assured that somehow or other the great
work of life was then and there accomplished, that
he was ticketed for Heaven, and that Heaven is
sure whatever else betide ; whether he have much
or little of the heavenly spirit in his heart and life
or not. Was the primitive Christian such a one
as this ? And did the primitive church foster,
approve, and accept such discipleship ? I trow not.
As a matter of fact, the primitive disciple of Jesus
was a beginner in the Christian life, a learner in
the Master's school, a student of divine things, a
rudimental type "of the perfect man according to
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
He pretended to nothing more. He may have been
of mature age, indeed, but he was ignorant of the
first principles of the oracles of God as proclaimed
by the great Revealer, and he sat a docile, willing,
tractable pupil at the Master's feet, desirous and
eager to be taught of Him. So it was before any

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 69

church existed, and so it was when it, by congenial
attraction and heart-prompted fellowship, became an
associate company or body of believers. All that
was then required as a condition of membership in
that company or body was a confession of Jesus of
Nazareth as the Christ — the God-appointed leader
and Saviour of men. That confession made, the
real work of life was begun, not completed. A
vast world of truth was to be studied, applied to
life, and exemplified in character ; a long path of
progress in Christlike righteousness was to be
traveled, the end whereof was complete oneness in
God and with God.

So were the early disciples taught from the
beginning. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, was
like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and
sowed in his field and it grew up till it became
the greatest of all herbs, or like leaven which a
woman hid in three measures of meal and which
worked there till the whole was leavened. In a
similar way was the seed of divine truth to grow
in the life of the disciple, and the leaven of divine
love to diffuse itself through his entire character
till it had completely reinvigorated, transformed it,
made it anew after the character of God. And
the Apostles exhort and council their brethren to
grow in grace and in divine knowledge ; to " add
to their faith virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to
knowledge, temperance ; to temperance, patience ;
to patience. Godliness ; to Godliness, brotherly-kind-
ness; and to brotherly-kindness, love"; "to forget
the things that are behind and press forward to

70 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

those that were before " ; to leave the rudiments
of the Gospel and go on to perfection.

And the disciples under the inspiration of this idea
of growth, of gradual development, of progress from
lower to higher forms of the Christian life ; in their
adaptation of church appliances and methods to
human needs, established a sort of training school
or preparatory department in which children and
youth and inquirers after divine things could be
trained for the church and become qualified for the
responsibilities and duties of full membership.
Those beginning in the study and practice of
Christianity were termed catechumens, of whom
there were different grades as in our modern edu-
cational institutions, through which the novitiate
must pass, before being clothed with the rights,
privileges, and powers of full membership. So in
the regenerate church of the future will there, no
doubt, be ample provision made in its constitution
'and administrative policy for the orderly training
of children and youth and those unused to Christian
instruction and nurture, under a system of gradation
already somewhat in vogue in many denominations,
whereby they shall be fitted and qualified for active,
intelligent, and efficient service in the church itself,
as properly received, fully equipped members thereof.
As there will be also afterward provision for rising
by ever-ascending steps of progressive unfolding
to the loftiest summits of moral and spiritual
achievement.

5. Finally, I may observe that when those who
would be the real followers of the Nazarene get

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. * 71

back to the original and true ecclesiastical system,
as provided for by him, and have a church organ-
ized and administered as a purely voluntary associa-
tion allowing that perfect freedom of thought and
action which has been set forth, there will be little
occasion for those outside movements in behalf of
moral reform and philanthropic causes that under
the long-existing forms of administration have been
practically indispensable. For then the good such
movements are designed to accomplish can be more
effectually secured within the pale of the church
by agencies planned and put in motion for specific
purposes or by the aggregate body unitedly pushing
forward any given benign, humanitary work. The
reconstructed church will be in itself a temperance
society, a peace society, or whatever else uncor-
rupted Christianity dictates ; and there will be no
fragmentary righteousness or patch-work effort for
the bettering of the world, but one grand move-
ment all along the line for universal uplifting,
helpfulness, and progress ; all reforms, and all
beneficent causes being regarded as closely related
to each other, to be carried forward simultaneously
as parts of one great scheme of redemption, to the
advancement and ultimate triumph of which the
church by virtue of its distinctive mission is
sacredly pledged. Then will those banded together
in the name of Christ be *'no more children tossed
to and fro with every wind of doctrine, by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive ; but speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things which is the

72 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

head even Christ.'* To such a church "the spirit
and the bride say, Come ; and let him that heareth
say, Come ; And let him that is athirst come ; and
whosoever will let him take the water of life
freely."

DISCOURSE V.

THE TRUE CHURCH SELF-SUBSISTING AND
INDEPENDENT.

" Neither was there any among them that lacked ; for as
many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and
brought the prices of things that were sold and laid them
down at the Apostles feet; and distribution was made unto
every man according as he had need." — Acts'w. 34, 35.

" Let him that stole steal no more ; but rather let him
labor, working with his hands the thing which is good that
he may have to give to him that needeth." — Eph. iv. 28.

" Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to
law before the unjust and not before the saints?" "Now
therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go
to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong?
Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded ? " —
/ Cor. vi. I, 7.

It is in the spirit and moral significance of these
passages, which I bring together as a text for the
present Discourse, that I enter upon the considera-
tion of the fourth distinctive feature of the primitive
Christian church as formulated thus : *' It was a
self-providing, self-sustaining, self-governing, self-
protecting body in respect to all the real necessities
of its own members and their legitimate dependents ;
none of these being left to the providence, charity,
or humanity of the outside world or of any of its

74 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

eleemosynary institutions for the supply of anything-
essential to body, mind, or spirit ; individually
or associatively — absolute impossibilities alone
excepted."

It is obvious that men and women, voluntarily
uniting in the Christian church, are still human
beings existing under mortal conditions and subject
to all the common necessities of the race. They
require food, raiment, shelter, and the various
comforts of a home ; in other words, what is indis-
pensable to their physical health and general well-
being. They have also those instincts and affections
which attract the different sexes to each other and
superinduce marriage, the family relation, and
household obligations, with the great majority of
mankind. Christianity holds these to be laudable
and right if not obligatory when not overruled by
special considerations of duty to God and man.
Families and households are to be not only fed,
clothed, protected, but educated, trained, regulated,
governed, in such a way as to be intelligent, orderly,
useful, honorable members of the domestic circle
and of the community at large. In these respects.
Christian families are in duty bound by their holy
religion, as are all individual Christians, to so far
excel the unchristianized masses about them that
they shall cost the general public represented in
organized civil society — in towns, cities, states, and
nations — nothing for restraint and punishment or
for the ordinary necessities of physical existence,
whilst, on the other hand, they afford it examples
of good citizenship, exert upon it a wholesome

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 75-

moral influence, and contribute in manifold ways
to its welfare and prosperity.

How then is the true Christian church to secure
at least a tolerable supply of the necessaries and
comforts of life — a competency of material goods
for all its members and dependents ? By the very
nature of its being as an outcome of the principles
and Spirit of the Gospel, it was from the beginning
and still is precluded from all resorts to fraud,
robbery, and violence ; from all methods of thrift
and material accumulation involving expense to-
outsiders — the unchristianized public — whether by
force, cunning or beggary. Ought it to depend on
the state ; that is, on the organized civil govern-
ments of the world and their administrative
machinery for the things specified.? To do sa
would, be to confess its own incapacity to provide
for itself — its own thriftlessness and economical
imbecility. It would imply that it was too ignorant,,
indolent, imprudent, wasteful, to be self-subsisting,.
or that the more productive, prosperous, fortunate
classes in its fellowship were too selfish, proud,,
unprincipled to care for and help those of their
associates who for any reason were less favored
than themselves ; were unable to obtain by their
own unaided efforts what was needful to their out-
ward, physical sustenance, comfort, and happiness.

Such a church, professing faith in Christ and in
his religion of love to God and man, would prove itself
false to its own acknowledged standard — a sham,,
having nothing of real superiority to the rest
of mankind and illustrating no higher morality

76 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

than that of the unregenerate world. Moreover,
whatever its pretension or its merits, it would
be in this regard practically a ward of the state or
of the general public, bound by ties of dependence
and obligation to pay it homage and bow to its
dictation as a superior power that fed and protected
it. In such a case its religion, conscience, and
righteousness should never presume to withhold
its members from such service as its provider and
master might exact, however menial, dishonorable,
unjust, bloody it might be. The customs of society,
the popular will, the edicts of magistrates, the laws
on the statute-book, the enactments of Legislatures
and Parliaments, the decrees of arbitrary sovereigns,
would claim supremacy with much show of equity
and reason, and to a large extent would have
it granted them. The church, Christ, God, would
thus be supplanted or disregarded, or worse still,
be casuistically interpreted or construed to sanction
and sanctify the temporal " powers that be." This
is the absurd, humiliating vassalage under which
the church has labored and suffered for fifteen
centuries, one of the most degrading, hideous, and
deplorable features or manifestations of which has
been the repeated armed conflicts into which Chris-
tians (so-called) of different communities, states,
and nations have been brought with each other; —
disciples of the gentle Jesus engaging in the work
of mutual slaughter, encouraged by their ministers
and priests, who, as chaplains, have been ready and
glad to say prayers over the bloody transaction
and invoke the help of God in carrying it on to a

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 7T

final issue. Not so the primitive Christians ! Not
so the true Christian church !

But to avoid this gross inconsistency and treach-
ery to pure Christianity, and be free from all
necessity of attempting to excuse it, the church
must be, as the proposition under discussion puts
it, ** self-providing, self-sustaining, self-governing,
self-protecting." This it must be in its own proper
sphere and on its own high moral and social plane
as a strictly voluntary body, without rebellious con^
flict against or cowardly subserviency to any social
or civil order under which its members live. They
must be quiet, peaceable subjects of such order m
all matters save those that are hostile to the great
principles of truth and righteousness as taught by
their great Master. And when for conscience' sake,
they are compelled to refuse compliance with requi«
sitions made upon them by the reigning authorities,
they must do so meekly yet uncompromisingly, with
harm to no one and a willingness to suffer if need
be the loss of all things earthly and perishable.

•' But," it may be asked, " if these followers of
the Christ who are resolved to be loyal to their
leader are taxed and otherwise pressed into the
support of institutions of a more or less worldly
and unchristian character, may they not share in
the advantages and emoluments those institutions
are ready to bestow upon their benefactors? " Just
so far as those advantages and emoluments can be
shared and enjoyed innocently and honorably; with-
out offence to God and wrong to man. Many of
the fruits of existing civilization can be thus shared

78 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and enjoyed. But those that pertain to penal,
military, and pauper establishments cannot. For
Christians to seek penal inflictions upon offenders,
especially those of a harmful character, to invoke
military protection, or to send their poor into the
public almshouse, or hand them over to the charity
of the general public, is to turn their backs on
Christ and prove themselves to be "of this world."
And the church which does this deserves only
reproach and contempt for all its high professions.

But if the church cannot resort to the provisions
named for protection must it not sometimes fare
hard and endure great privations in the person of
some of its members ? Undoubtedly. This was so
with the primitive church in its unpopularity and
through the persecutions to which it was subjected.
Its most faithful representatives have had similar
trying experiences all down the ages. But what of
that ! Such was its destined lot as the regenerative
force of the world. It grew strong and efficient
by trial, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom. It was not
instituted to conform itself to the world, to fawn
and cater to the powers of darkness for the sake
of ease, gain, and popular applause. Its business
was to maintain a standing above the world, to
overcome the world and not be overcome by it, and
to lift it to its own high-level; to Christianize
mankind by raising them in the scale of being, not
to de-christianize itself by going down to the com-
mon level of human thought and conduct.

In saying this I do not imply or admit that the
tendency of fidelity to Christ and his Gospel is to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 79

poverty, privation, and suffering in this mortal
sphere of being. I believe and would insist on
the contrary. The benefits of Christianity are not
exclusively for a future world or for man as a
spiritual and immortal being; they accrue to human
welfare and happiness in this present world and to
man as a denizen thereof. Nevertheless its disci-
ples are exposed to toils, struggles, disappointments,
manifold sufferings, here on earth. But these are
of incidental character and arise from perverse
conditions to which all believers are subject in a
rudimental state of existence, and through which
they must pass to reach higher and holier ones.
But shall we conclude from this that real Christians
enjoy less and suffer more than others ? Nay, verily.
God forbid. It is a great delusion to imagine that
Christlike souls suffer most and that the un-Christ
like and worldly-minded enjoy most in the present
state of being. Wealth, rank, station, luxury, all that
the selfish and sordid crave as sources of happiness
are shared by few of each generation of human
kind, and to this few there have come with what
they have coveted and gained, so many cares,
anxieties, perplexities as often to greatly modify if
not overbalance the happiness. On the whole the
good man is the gainer not the loser — by being
deprived of an excess of these earthly possessions.
Is he poor ? But there are thousands of the
ungodly poorer than he who have none of the
inward spiritual comforts and delights that enrapt-
ure his soul. Is he wronged, oppressed, outraged ?

80 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

So are there multitudes besides equally so, with
none of those sublime hopes and blissful visions
that are his consolation and his unfailing joy. Is
he imprisoned, cruelly treated, slain, for his reli-
gious faith or fidelity to his convictions, having
harmed no man but sought the good of every
human being? Behold what millions have been
wounded, tortured, slaughtered in cold blood on
the battlefield, either' in support or defence of a
false, worthless religion, or to gratify an unholy
ambition, lust of power, revenge, or some other
base passion of a depraved heart ! Behold the
fraud, violence, licentiousness, debauchery, which
have made of earth a hell ! Consider how guilty
and miserable a large portion of the human race
is for want of pure and undefiled religion ; for want
of that faith, hope, love, which are the sum and
substance of pure Christianity. And then turn to
those worthy to be called Christians, to those who
have the spirit and who keep the precepts of Jesus,
and consider whether these or the others get the
most out of life — the most real satisfaction, com-
fort, happiness ; even out of the present life. Do
we not find, looking the world over and all time
through, seeing what is occurring before our very
eyes day by day, that the devout, earnest, God-
trusting, man-loving, good-doing soul really enjoys
more, drinks more deeply of the cup of bliss than
the carnally-minded, mammon-serving, proudly-ambi-
tious, stony-hearted, God-dishonoring one ? even
though his wealth be counted by millions, his lands
be vast in extent and his dwelling place a splendid

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 81

mansion ; even though he sit in a high place of
state, wear a monarch's jeweled crown, or bear a
conqueror's blood-stained name. Do we not find by
such a survey that there is in human experience
a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus, " Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these (earthly) things shall be added unto
you?" And this other, "There is no man that
hath left houses, or parents, or brethren, or wife,
or children for the kingdom of God's sake,
who shall not receive manifold more in this
present time and in the world to come life
everlasting? "

We are never to forget that a right state of
mind and heart, a sincere love of truth and good,
a conscience void of offence, a serene trust in the
eternal Divine Providence, temper the rough blast,
moderate suffering, soften grief, and at the same
time enhance enjoyment and heighten bliss ; nay,
take away a thousand causes of sorrow and distress,
and multiply the sources of satisfaction and delight
to an immortal soul. It is, in my judgment, beyond
all contradiction or dispute that people thus condi-
tioned in themselves have an incalculable advantage
over those of contrary type of temper and character,,
however favored they may be in a worldly estimate,
touching the enjoyment to be derived in this pres-
ent world from the things of the present world ;
while at the same time to such the great future
that lies beyond the limitations of earth and sense
is resplendent with assurances of immortal life and
blessedness. Besides all this, as the sublime prin-

82 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ciples of Christ's religion make progress among
men, triumphing over the prevailing ignorance,
perverseness, and wickedness, which are the chief
sources of misery and wretchedness in the world,
the domain of human content and joy will be pro-
portionally enlarged ; until in the time of the great
consummation, when the kingdoms of this world
shall have become the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gladness and joy of the children of men
shall be complete and enduring.

" For sin hath broke the world's deep peace, unstrung
The harmonious chords to which the angels sung;"

and as sin is overcome and put forever away, giving
place to holiness and love, so shall the lost harmony
be restored and happiness be the perennial lot of
mankind. The angelic anthem shall then be taken
up again, the chorus swelling with the increasing
voice of ransomed multitudes and growing in
sweetness and enchanting power as the years go
hastening on,

"Till nation after nation taught the strain
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round."

But to the question, How can the true Christian
church be a self-providing, self-sustaining, self-gov-
erning, self-protecting body in respect to the things
that are indispensable to comfortable physical exist-
ence ? I reply, ( i ) By productive industry,
careful economy, and a moderate consumption in all
departments of material need. ( 2 ) By systematic

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 83

co-operative counsel and effort for the acquisition,
distribution and use of whatever is necessary to
human subsistence and comfort in well-ordered
human society. ( 3 ) By fraternal kindness and
generosity on the part of the more favored and
prosperous towards those less so ; especially towards
the impoverished, the unfortunate, and the suffer-
ing of their fellowship.

If we examine the history of the primitive church
we find that it was a fundamental item of its estab-
lished policy to make ample provision for the sub-
sistence, comfort, and relief of its needy and
suffering members. Even before there was any
thing like a formal association of the followers of
Jesus, he seems to have instituted a common purse
or bag in which were deposited contributions for
general use or for the supply of those in want of
the necessaries of life ; of which depository Judas
is reported to have been the custodian. {Sqq John
xii. 6 and xiii. 29.) And after the great day of
Pentecost, when there was a marvelous outpouring
of the Holy Spirit and great numbers were added
to the church, much of the property of the mem-
bers was put into a general fund for the same
purposes. As it is written — "And all that believed
were together and had all things common. And
sold their possessions and goods, and parted them
to all men as every man had need." — Acts ii. 44,
45. And again, "As many as were in possession
of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices
of the things that were sold, and laid them down
at the Apostle's feet, and distribution was made unto

84 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

every man according as he had need." — Ac^s iv.
34, 35. In order that the comm'on funds might be
duly cared for and judiciously used, seven persons
of character and good repute, subsequently called
deacons, were appointed to attend to all such
matters and be held responsible for their wise and
beneficent administration. (See Ads vi. 1-6.)

In this feature of the practice of the early church
we have an unmistakable indication of the genius
of Christianity and of the spirit which should ani-
mate the breast of all its true professors. Not
that what was then done was an example to be
followed by all naming the name of Christ to the
end of time. Not that there was any arbitrary
rule even then requiring that property should be
held in a common fund or depository, or be managed
in a definite way, but that there should be a feeling
of brotherhood throughout the entire communion ;
all having an interest in all and none being left in
need of any good thing. Under the then existing
circumstances, free, spontaneous generosity and
charity constituted the chief if not the only source
of supply for the needs of the church itself and
its dependents. This was all-sufficient for the time
being ; besides, it was a proof of the sincerity and
fidelity of those first adherents of the new faith.

Its Founder and his immediate ministers testified
against mammon-worship, covetousness, and inordi-
nate hoarding of worldly property as a sin, ranking
in the ethical estimate with pride, self-righteousness,
hypocrisy, and all the motley forms of inhumanity.
On the other hand they extolled as among the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 85

chiefest of virtues that kindly interest in and regard
for the wants, the necessities, the sufferings of
fellow-creatures, which prompts to the sacrifice of
property, time, talent, and personal advantage for
their good. Of this we have ample and indisputa-
ble proof which need not be repeated.

Nor was this all. The church could not long
subsist on the contributions of previously accumu-
lated capital. Without any growth of membership
such accumulations would soon be exhausted, and
pauperism would ensue. With the rapid increase
of numbers that soon took place there must of
necessity be ways and means of acquiring more
capital, as also of preventing that already acquired
or to be acquired from running to waste. Hence
the indispensable need of productive industry, of
economy, temperance, and moderate, frugal habits
of life generally. Hence all through the Gospel
and Epistles are there precepts and injunctions
imposing these virtues upon disciples and denounc-
ing idleness, extravagance, luxury, and all those
courses in life which tend to improvidence, poverty,
and wretchedness. And these precepts and injunc-
tions are in perfect accord with those forbidding
excessive love of money, greed of gain, avarice,
penuriousness, over-anxiety for the necessities of
life, though scoffers and sceptics often array the
one against the other in disparagement of the New
Testament record and the religion it portrays and
commends.

It is equally true that in substance the New
Testament plainly sets forth the other asserted

86 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

characteristics of the primitive church, self-govern-
ment, and self-protection. ' Existing circumstances
did not permit or require it to go far in this regard;
to formulate systems of organization or methods of
administration. The early disciples believed that
God himself was their Almighty Protector and
that His law was sufficient for their guidance and
control. The ancient Scriptures had assured them
that "they that trust in the Lord shall not want
any good thing " ; that " underneath them were the
everlasting arms"; that "blessed are the undefiled
in the way who walk in the law of the Lord," etc.,
and they stood fast by such testimonies. The
heathen governments within whose jurisdiction the
church sprung into being and existed for several
generations, exercised a strong control over its
external conditions, often hostile to it, but some-
times beneficent and helpful ; yet to a great extent
it took care of itself, was independent of the reign-
ing power, managed its own affairs, maintained,
amid opposition and persecution, its own standing
as one of the growing dynasties of the world. It
marked out its own course and followed it in all
fidelity and without real cause of offense to any.
It fomented no tumults, riots, insurrections, for
existing governments to suppress. It made no
criminals to be restrained or punished. It fur-
nished no cases to be prosecuted at law, and no
paupers to be maintained at the public expense.
On the other hand, it bore reproach meekly ; it
set the best of personal and social examples ; it
exerted an elevating influence upon the community

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 87

at large ; it was busy in doing good even to ene-
mies; it was indeed in its day "the light of the
world" and "the salt of the earth."

In respect to systematic efforts in the direction
of self-government and self-protection, the primitive
church did little, as I have stated. It devised no
plans or methods of civil administration ; it founded
no new social order. Nothing more than ultimate
aims, grand ideals of social and civil order, visions
of a coming kingdom of righteousness, peace, and
joy, engaged their thought and energy, with a
scrupulous purpose to make their lives fall into
line with such aims, ideals, and visions, as far
as possible, and to prepare the way for their
actualization ; to put in motion forces, to pro-
claim truths, to inaugurate a movement, which
under the watchful providence of God should in
some coming age produce that sublime result.
Under the circumstances they could do nothing
more than this. Yet this was of unspeakable
importance. It was the beginning of a work
that was to be taken up by the church of the
then future — the lineal successor of the primitive
church — and carried forward to a final triumph.
And in that early primitive church we find the
indication, the symbol, the type of the true Chris-
tian Church as it grows and prospprs and ripens
into maturity. And in its efforts to realize its own
ideals, to bring its conceptions of the divine king-
dom into touch with its own life as an inspiration
to the noblest and the best, it did start a movement
which was calculated and destined to evolve at

88 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

length a Christian civilization, a divine order of
human society, a political system founded in right-
eousness and humanity, the promised kingdom of
God on earth.

Thus have I outlined the real character of the
true church of Christ in those features of it brought
to notice in this Discourse ; what it was essentially
in the beginning, what it is today, what it will be
in the time of the great consummation. And I
close what I have to say on the topic under dis-
cussion by observing that all notions and customs
which merge the nominal Christian Church in what
is termed civilization, which involve it in partisan
politics, divide it into social castes, excuse its
(so-called) higher classes from fraternizing with
the lower, send its poor and needy ones to the
common alms-house, and amalgamate it with the
selfish world are alike anti-Christian and abominable.
A church which adopts the world's ruling expedi-
ents of trade ; which nurtures its youth for political,
military, plutocratic distinction ; which holds the
laws, practices, and policies of the state and nation
superior to the plain precepts and duties of the
Gospel ; which is ambitious to outrival the fashion-
able world in palatial residences, costly equipage,
extravagant tables, and enervating pleasures ; which
depends on mammon-worshipers and capitalists for
money to support its clergy and supply the means
of operating its various activities, is a pseudo-
Christian church, having no real relation to him
whose name it surreptitiously bears, worthy only
of reprobation by all honest souls, and destined to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 89

be supplanted and superseded by a more fitting
representative of the great Captain of human salva-
tion, Jesus of Nazareth. God hasten the day when
a. regenerate church shall take the place of all those
which are Christian in name only, and not ''in
Spirit and in truth."

DISCOURSE VI.

ALLEGIANCE TO CHBIST AND HIS CHUBCH.

"Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it;
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish." — Eph. v.
25-27.

''All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas,
or the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to
come ; all are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is
God's." — / Cor. iii. 21-23.

We come now to the consideration of the fifth
and last distinctive constitutional peculiarity of the
true Christian Church as tabulated in my second
Discourse of this series, viz : " It demanded the
heartfelt allegiance, devotion, and fidelity of its
adherents first to Christ himself as their great
Head and then to each other as fellow-members
of his body ; and also their separate and united
endeavor to preserve, sustain, promote, and honor
the church by all rightful means and at all hazard
of personal cost and sacrifice in preference to any
other association, institution, relationship, or interest
of human design and adjustment." That is, under
God, the Father of all sentient beings, and Supreme

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 91

over all, Christ is to be regarded as chiefest in
authority and in claims to loyalty and obedience, —
the first in importance ; next the church, and all
things beside subordinate to these two.

By these affirmations I mean (i) that all allegiances-
devotion, and fidelity exercised towards the church
must be secondary to those rendered Christ, who is
not simply the nominal but the actual Head of the
Church, and who therefore is the rightful ruler
over it, the final arbiter of its active polity and
administration. Consequently no organization assum-
ing to be the Christian Church has any just claim
to the reverence and fealty of its members as
against those due to Christ, his authority, his prin-
ciples, and his spirit. If claims of supremacy of
that sort are made they are to be ignored or
resisted as unwarrantable usurpations. Loyalty to
Christ is the primary and the inviolable obligation.

I mean by the declarations made (2) that, in
proper subordination to Christ, the true church
should command the next highest allegiance, devo-
tion, and fidelity of its members. And by the true
church in this connection I mean what each individ-
ual disciple of Christ himself honestly deems the
properly constituted organic expression of faith in
and loyalty to the Master on the part of those
bearing His name. It may be the Romish, Greek,
or Protestant church, or some dissenting body of
an ecclesiastical character, but it must be one's
highest ideal of associated, organized Christian dis-
cipleship. For this it is his solemn duty to testify
and to work ; to the maintenance, prosperity, and

92 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

efficiency of this, he is under imperative obligation
to devote time, energy, pecuniary means, personal
service. He may withdraw or stand aloof from
any so-called Christian church which he deems
false, corrupt, or in any way unworthy the name
it bears, but he is in duty bound to unite himself
with others in church relationship, even though
there be but two or three thus gathered together.
In other words he is to act according to the
impulses and requirements of his own socially reli-
gious nature, and in obedience to that " law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus " which demands unity,
brotherhood, co-operation, as a means both of per-
sonal growth in grace and divine knowledge and
of extending the realm of Christian truth and right,
eousness among men. ** Striving together for the
faith of the Gospel" is the demand of the genius
of Christianity as it is the condition of Chris-
tianity's progress and triumph in the world. Indi-
vidualism in religion, personal isolation and seclusion,
is a bane and not a blessing to him who practices
it and to humanity; a hindrance and a foe to the
cause of Christ.

By the same statements I mean (3) that while
allegiance, devotion, and fidelity to Christ and his
church require the proper subordination of all other
associations, institutions, relationships, and interests
thereto, they do not require any attitude of hostility
or of resistance towards them except in cases where
there is real setting at naught or trampling under
foot principles and precepts which .Christ and his
church represent and make obligatory upon man-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 93^

kind, as inhering in the fundamental moral order
of the world and as expressive of the will and law
of God. It is obvious to every fairly intelligent
mind that there are innumerable respects in which
loyalty to Christ and his church involve no conflict
whatever with other interests, institutions, and con-
cerns ; with the affairs of domestic life, of society,.
of the general community, of the state and nation.
Indeed the only conflicts possible are those in which
there is some absolute defect, wrong, or evil on the
part of the interests, institutions, and concerns
themselves. Such being the case, the conflict will
be waged for the purpose of overcoming the exist-
ing defect, wrong, or evil, and hence must be
ultimately for the good of all parties concerned and
of the universal public, thus justifying the claim
that Christ and his church must hold the first
place in the thought and conduct of his loyal
disciples.

That the position taken upon the matter under
examination is substantially correct I can see no
reason for doubt. If the church is what I have
declared it to be on the divine and human side ;
if its grand design, characteristic features, and
capabilities are what I have tried to demonstrate^
then its growing ascendency and final triumph will
insure the regeneration, holiness, and happiness of
the world ; so that the will of God shall some day
be done on earth as it is is heaven. A church of
this character and possessing such power for good
to mankind, under the headship of Christ, is justly
entitled to the undivided and supreme allegiance^

M PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

devotion, and fidelity of all who enter its fellowship.
Such allegiance, devotion, and fidelity it had on
the part of those who early in our era voluntarily
attached themselves to it as attested by myriads
of self-forgetting, uncompromising martyrs.

I. And now let us inquire what would have been the
result had the primitive disciples of Christ regarded
their obligation to him and to his church of less
moment and so less binding than that which char-
acterized their relation to the prevailing customs
and institutions of social and civil life. In Palestine
and wherever Judaism held sway Christ was at the
very beginning of his ministry denounced as a pre-
tender, a schismatic, a destroyer of the law and
prophets, and even a blasphemer. The common
people were warned against him and those who
became his followers were in many instances cast
out of the synagogue. What was to be done }
Those who had espoused him and his cause must
either forsake him altogether and allow his cause
to go by default, or, continuing loyal and true,
must sacrifice personal reputation, social standing,
ecclesiastical honor, and in some cases property and
even life itself. Faithful to Jesus, contumely, per-
secution, imprisonment, torture, death, confronted
them. What if they, deterred by such threatening
contingencies, had forsaken Christ ? What if Christ
himself had turned from the light and abandoned
his mission ? Then Christianity would have been
still-born and the church would have come to an
early death and been laid silent and powerless in
its grave.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 95

Again, suppose that Christ, his disciples and
early ambassadors had adopted an artful, clandes-
tine, temporizing policy, concealing their radical
principles and their ultimate purpose, and attempted
to introduce their new faith into the old Jewish
system by stealth, by currying favor from the ruling
powers, by sycophantic fawning, and pretended
loyalty. Under such a method, what would they
have accomplished ? Nothing, except to prove
themselves imbeciles and cowardly courtiers worthy
only of the scorn and execration of all ingenuous,
noble-minded people.

Again, suppose that they had subordinated their
religion to the popular political regime of their
time — to what is called patriotism and the man-
agement of affairs of state ; had besieged Herod
and the Roman governors for place and power, and
an opportunity to serve the public for a salary ; or
had agitated for important social, civil, or perhaps
moral reforms through the machinery of the gov-
ernment ; or had relied upon political parties and
political agencies — the legislative assemblies, the
judicial councils, the courts and cabinets of princes
and kings — to carry on the work of human regenera-
tion and bring in the divine kingdom ; or had
devoted their chief energies to the support and
manipulation of worldly, warlike provinces and
empires; had employed themselves chiefly in mend-
ing and bettering what was called civilization on
the common plane of life, what would they have
accomplished ? A comparatively miserable and piti-
able failure they would have made ! Some good no

yb PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

doubt they would have done, but how little con-
trasted with what they actually brought to pass by
their independent, uncompromising course, pursued
though it was at incalculable sacrifice on their
part.

And so it might be asked of the Apostles and
their constituency after Christ had passed away
from the earth, as they sought to extend Chris-
tianity among the Gentiles. What if by cunning
and compromise they had tried to gain the favor
of heathen priests, of worldly-wise philosophers, of
the ruling powers of Pagandom ; or had striven to
win popularity and success by fraternizing with
potentates and lords and those controlling govern-
mental concerns, in order to gain influence and
advantage for the prosecution of their holy work ;
or had been ambitious for civil and military dis-
tinction in the various provinces and kingdoms
into which they made their way ; or had championed
their cause and labored for it outside the church
rather than within — on the worldly plane of things
rather than on the high spiritual plane of the
Gospel — spending time, effort, energy, largely in
trying to remodel existing civil institutions, laws,
and policies rather than in seeking to enlighten,
uplift, regenerate, Christianize those about them
and induce them to live according to the law of
love to God and man ? What if they had thus
allowed their religion to mingle with and be virtually
lost in or parallyzed by the superstition, barbar-
ism, and degradation with which they came in contact
instead of maintaining its distinctive superiority^

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 97

marching boldly in advance of them and leading
the way to a better future for those with whom
their lot was cast and for the world ? By such a
policy on the part of the early Apostles of Chris-
tianity and their co-laborers in their missionary
efforts and enterprises the religion of Jesus would
have been shorn of its redeeming power, and lost
its hold upon the reverence and love, the minds
and hearts of mankind. As a new force in human
history, its distinctive character would have soon
disappeared ; as God's agency for the conquest of
evil and the inauguration and establishment of the
kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy on the
earth, it would have long since proved the ground-
lessness of all claims of that nature.

2. Let us consider now how rapidly the church
became corrupted, metamorphosed, de-christianized,
when it abandoned its lofty position of being an
organic representative of that kingdom which is
"not of this world," and entered into alliance with
that great empire of antiquity which was emphati-
cally " of this world." In the second and third
centuries its first step in the departure from the
fraternal simplicity of its primitive state was taken
by the incipient establishment in its administration
of an aristocratic episcopate under which a few
provincial and still fewer metropolitan bishops
usurped unprecedented authority over the laity
and humbler orders of ministering servants. This
act on the part of those counted worthy of respect
and emulation vitiated the moral standard and the
conscience of multitudes who were led thereby to

98 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

abandon their scruples against mammonism, worldly
ambition, war, oath-taking, and governmental office-
holding. Soon after it was that the Roman armies
began to obtain recruits from so-called Christian
sources and the imperial courts to be officered by
so-called Christian incumbents. This prepared
the way for as it hastened the formal union of
church and state under Constantine in the fourth
century. What then ? As a result the church
thenceforward had in its membership an over-ruled,
ostracised, trampled-down minority who still held
fast to the profession of their primitive faith, while
the vast majority sank rapidly from one degree of
demoralization to another till they out-Paganed the
old Pagans themselves in almost everything con-
demned and denounced by Christ and his first
Apostles. They held with great tenacity to the
Christian name and records but for many genera-
tions dishonored both by their immoralities and
crimes. The Protestant Reformation, as it was
termed, put away many abuses and iniquities but
perpetuated a vast amount of pseudo-Christianity,
much of which still remains to be overcome and
abandoned. Of this false religion, as I have stated
in a previous volume, is that politico-military eccle-
siasticism which now confounds the church with
the world in the moral medley, often termed Chris-
tian civilization. This is so confusing and deceptive
that incalculable numbers of professing Christians,
enlightened in many directions, fail to understand
wherein pure Christianity and the existing social
and civil order differ, as they fail to recognize any

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 99

higher allegiance than that which is claimed by
the state or nation in which their lot is cast.
They see nothing in the Sermon on the Mount
or in the teachings of the Master elsewhere that
demands a devotion or loyalty above that due to
the magistrate, the legislature, the judiciary, or
the executive, under the political system environing
them. Society, as it is, has to such no radically
obnoxious and reprehensible features to be sup-
planted and put forever away ; society as it is,
improved, garnished, beautified, is, to such, a
good type of the society that is to be, in which
the Gospel idea of human brotherhood shall be
actualized and the knowledge of God cover the
earth as the waters cover the depths of the sea.
It is a comfort to believe that within the next five
hundred years the minds and hearts of men will
be disillusionized upon this subject by the shedding
abroad therein regenerating light, and that the true
nature, ofBce, and responsibility of the Christian
church will be understood in some good degree ;
and also the relation it sustains to "the powers
that be " and to the prevailing social and civil
order of the world.

3. Let us now consider what would come to
pass if the nominal Christian church should assume
in all essential respects its primitive form and,
under the impulse of a true regenerative transforma-
tion, stand fast in its supreme and undivided
allegiance to Christ and its own acknowledged
principles, holding all other human interests, insti-
tutions, and claims strictly secondary and subordi-

100 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

nate thereto. I will tell you what I sincerely
think, as the dictate of my best judgment, would
take place. The standard of righteousness in the
church would be greatly exalted ; would, in fact,
be restored to its original excellence and incorrupti-
bleness, which is personal holiness exemplified in
reverential love toward God and unselfish love for
all mankind. The test of personal virtue and
worth would be Christlikeness of spirit, conduct,
and moral character as set forth in the New
Testament Scriptures, not conformity to the cus-
toms and fashions of the world, nor to the usages
and opinions of society at large, nor to the laws
and requirements of the state or nation, nor to
the decrees of ecclesiastical tribunals and tradi-
tions of the church coming down from days of
medieval darkness and degradation, which still are
regarded as of binding authority in some portions
of Christendom and as the criteria of human duty
and obligation. The lines between the church and
the world would be definitely drawn, between the
righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of
human enactments, between the perfect law of love
to God and man and the temporizing expediency
of civilized society. We should then understand
the difference between a Christian and a devotee
of mammon or Belial, between the church and
the body politic, and hold in just estimation those
whose highest allegiance is to God as revealed in
His son, Jesus Christ, and so not to any subordi-
nate authority or power however pretentious and
imperious or by whatsoever name designated. The

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 101

church with Christ as its acknowledged head would
lead the world in its advancing march — would lead
society and civilization, saying, ''This is the more
excellent way, walk ye in it."

Under this regenerate, reconstructed system of
ecclesiastical life, the members of the church
of Christ would act in all things from a profound
conviction that their first duty — their supreme
obligation next to that which they owed to God,
was to their acknowledged Lord, and to the prin-
ciples and spirit which he taught and exemplified
and sought to have embodied in that great institu-
tion which since his day has borne his name.
They would resolve in all sincerity and with a
heroic determination ( i ) to be personally holy and
Christlike in spirit, in conduct, and in character ;
(2) to consecrate their time, their talents, and
their opportunity, primarily, not to any worldly
interest, not to political advancement, not to any
selfish end or object, but to the cause of Christ
and his church ; (3) to devote to the same causes, as
represented in the great work of benefiting and
blessing mankind, the surplus fruits of their pro-
ductive industry, economical savings, and honestly
acquired property of whatever sort over and above
such reasonable portions thereof as should be neces-
sary to the health, comfort, education, spiritual
growth, and general well-being of themselves, their
families, and dependent ones. Thus would Christ
have the first love of those professing allegiance
to him, and his church, the noblest personal
example, the highest mental capabilities, the best

102 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

industrial and economical skill, and the most ample
pecuniary means at its command ; all freely and
heartily bestowed for the sustenance of its own
organic moral and spiritual life, for the manage-
ment of its affairs, for the operating of its activities,
for the prosecution of its divinely-appointed mission
in the world, that of reaching and rescuing sin -lost
souls, of lifting mankind to a higher level, of bring-
ing in the kingdom of God. As things now are it
is with difficulty that a modicum of these resources
can be secured for needed uses. The bulk of them
is expended upon selfish ambition, sensual gratifi-
cation, partisan politics, the maintenance of state
and national institutions and policies, the demands
of a semi-barbaric civilization. The amount of
time, talent, enterprise, skill, productive energy,
and pecuniary means now squandered upon merely
worldly and factitious objects, upon things that
perish with the using or are of secondary or inap-
preciable worth, not to say useless, vain, and
wicked, is astonishing. It is especially astonishing
to see how much more ready members of the
church themselves are to make expenditures for
these things than for the great objects for which
the church ought to stand and for the promotion
of which the great Head of the church lived,
taught, labored, suffered, and died. The trouble is
that the religion of the church, if not anti-Christian
is pseudo-Christian, and its reigning powers as well
as its common membership need to be converted
before they can see in its beauty and glory the
kingdom of God.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 103

And some clay they will be converted each and
all of them and the church itself will become **a
new creature in Christ " — will be animated by a
new spirit, will take on a higher form of life, will
proceed with accelerated speed in its proper work,
" will accomplish the thing whereunto it was sent "
into the world. It will go on " conquering and to
conquer" until ''the kingdoms of this world shall
have become the kingdom of our Lord." It will
do this not with carnal weapons but with spiritual
ones, not by priestly cunning or pious fraud, not
by catering to popular taste, custom, or opinion,
not by sycophantic fawning at the feet of political
manipulators and rulers, not by conjuring legisla-
tures and cabinets, councillors and kings, but by
the power of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming God's
truth, testifying against all forms of iniquity, calling
men and nations to repentance for their sins, and
standing fast individually and collectively for the
truth as it is in Jesus and for the life that is hid
with Christ in God.

There is nothing morally desirable, noble, or
grand that such a church could not and would not
do for the spiritual enlightenment, uplifting, and
transformation of the human race. Beginning with
individuals and bringing them by a true knowledge
of the Son of God unto a perfect manhood, "unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ," it would proceed to elevate and purify
marriage and therewith the whole order of domes-
tic life, making it conform to the divine idea and
purpose in ordaining it, thence to renew and recon-

104 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Struct all departments of social and civil life as
represented in communities, townships, states, and
nations, until the regeneration and federation
of the world as Jesus foreshadowed them were
consummated. It would educate and nurture child-
hood and youth in the way of the Gospel for true
usefulness, worth, and honor, and set before open-
ing manhood and womanhood the great end and
aim of existence, inducing them " to press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus." It would control and consecrate
landed estates in the spirit of brotherhood to the
occupancy and use of its members and dependents ;
establish homes for them free from demoralizing
surroundings, free from neighboring dens of drunk-
enness, sensuality, and shame, and from the tempt-
ing nurseries of disorder, crime and moral death.
It would found and regulate peaceful, pleasant
villages whose inhabitants should want for nothing
calculated to make them comfortable, virtuous,
contented, happy ; should have wholesome and
remunerative employment, congenial and healthful
companionship, care in sickness or misfortune, edu-
cational advantages, means of moral and religious
culture ; all possible incentives and helps to true
and noble living. It would combine and confeder-
ate local churches into comprehensive communities,
or forms of social order, extend the empire of
friendly and fraternal co-operation, multiply institu-
tions and facilities for the betterment of all classes
of men, and show the unregenerate and heathen
world what true Christianity is and what it can do;

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 105

show it, too, how to be wise, holy, and happy, as
God intended and requires.

''But all this kind of talk" says the self-satisfied,
purblind adorer of present civilization, "is visionary,
Utopian, impracticable. Men will always be what
they ever have been and now are ; largely selfish
beings ; good, bad, and indifferent, agglomerated
together in somewhat varying but essentially con-
stant and irreversible proportions. If Christ will
have a church here on the earth it must be com-
posed of such material as here exists, and must be
animated and governed much as the world in
general is ; not by high-sounding theories and sub-
limated moralizings, but by that compound of
reason, persuasion, policy, chicanery, diplomacy,
and force which always held sway in human affairs."
I reply that such is the wisdom of this world and
not of God. It is "not from above but is earthly,
sensual, devilish." It is the wisdom that has always
opposed human progress and stood in the way of
the advancing reign of righteousness, peace, and
love. It is the wisdom of practical Atheism. If
sound there is no such thing as pure religion,
absolute moral principle, or real virtue. Jesus
Christ taught and exemplified all these. The
church he founded embraced and illustrated them.
What has been done under Christ's inspiration and
guidance in a small way can and shall yet be done
universally. He lives still and reigns, king of
saints, the leader of his own to final victory. The
Holy Spirit, breath of the Infinite God, animates,
inspires, directs, empowers men now as in the

106 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

olden time. The light of heaven shines now as
then, yet in purer radiance and with farther-extended
beams. The world at large is in better condition
today than formerly to receive and profit by the
word of the Lord. The means and methods of
imparting and diffusing divine knowledge are more
abundant. Good men and women are more earnest
in seeking the better way for themselves and for
all mankind. The church itself was never more
awake to its responsibilities, in this behalf. Let
it put on the beautiful garments of Christ ; let it
arise in its strength ; let it gird itself for its
God-given work. Then will God prosper it and
grant it at length the victory.

Ho ! ye who bear the Christian name,

Come, build the church anew ;
Its sacred embers re-inflame

On altars pure and true.

Long since its sad decay began,

Its shield became defaced;
Long since its pristine light grew wan,

Its name was sore disgraced.

Corruption stained its holy walls,

Gross error marred its creed,
And baptized Pagans thronged its halls

Though Pagans still in deed.

Its simple faith at first sublime,

Thus mythed with heathen lore,
Gave way to worldliness and crime,

And bitter fruits they bore.

But its foundations still endure,

As ointed eyes can see ;
And still its corner-stone is sure

For ages yet to be.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. lOT

Then let us join with wilHng hands

This temple to restore ;
And make it glorious through all lands

Henceforth, forevermore.

With all our powers of heart and mind —

With all our strength of will,
Let us rebuild the church, designed

God's purpose to fulfill.

And shame on him who rests content

With all things as they are;
Whose earth-bound soul, on self intent.

Would human progress bar.

Not so those Christlike ones, who sigh

To hail the end of sin;
To see the promised age draw nigh,

God's blessed reign come in.

DISCOURSE VII.

ESSENTIALS OF THE TBUE CHRISTIAN CHUBGH.

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners
but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God ; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into
a holy temple in the Lord." — Ephs. ii. 19-21.

In the second discourse of the present volume I
stated that the absolute essentials of the true
Christian church ** might be tabulated under the
several heads of Cardinal Objects, Theological
Faith, Personal Righteousness, Principles of Social
Progress and Order, Established Methods of Organi-
zation and Administration." I now enter upon
the detailed and thorough consideration of these
several designated topics, both in general and in
particular.

What then do I mean by absolute essentials in
this connection } I mean acknowledged principles
of truth and duty indispensably necessary to the
unperverted, healthy condition of the church.
That body has been from its very beginning in a
healthy, unperverted state — a strictly normal con-
dition, or in an abnormal, unhealthy, perverted one,
as it always will be. In order to be in a normal,
healthy condition I maintain that certain great

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 10^

underlying and interpenetrating principles of a
moral and spiritual character are absolutely and
unqualifiedly necessary, and that therefore it is of
primary importance to the existence and true pros-
perity of the church that these principles should
be understood, acknowledged, inculcated, and applied
by those concerned in the support and management
of the church as a permanent institution of the
religious world. I propose now to state those prin-
ciples in my own language according to the dictates
of my own best judgment, allowing that other per-
sons might put them into other forms of speech
at their discretion without changing their primary
character or significance.

I. The Cardinal Objects of the True
Christian Church.

1. To train its members and dependents, with
all who voluntarily place themselves under its
guardianship and tutelage, by wisely chosen and
applied instruction and discipline, to habitual, perma-
nent Christlikeness of faith, hope, and love ; of
spirit, conduct, and character.

2. To propagate the true, primitive religion of
Christ by all reasonably available means as far and
wide as possible, convert the wayward and sinful
from darkness to light and from iniquity to right-
eousness, ever seeking as its ultimate aim the
regeneration, holiness, and happiness of the entire
human race.

110 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

3. To insure to all its orderly members, depend-
-ents, and attached probationers, the comforts and
necessaries of life, physical, intellectual, moral,
social, and religious, without slavish and humiliat-
ing dependence on the part of any one upon the
outside world.

4. To exemplify within the pale of its own
affiliated membership a form of personal and social
life in advance of existing civilization, as a type
and harbinger of the divine order of human society
that is to be, when men under the reign of Christ
shall dwell together in brotherhood and peace.

5. To demonstrate by practical righteousness in
all human relations and affairs the transcendent
excellence of pure Christianity over all other reli-
gions, philosophies, and moral systems known
to men, and thus continually approximate the
perfect realization of the Master's prayer, " Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.

II. Theological Faith of the True
Christian Church.

I. The divine moral order of the world.

( I.) There is one and but one God, who is self-
existent, infinite, all-perfect ; an omnipresent Spirit,
not a corporeal, localized organism ; permeating
boundless space and duration and manifestable to
finite intelligences at His own pleasure as to time,
place, manner, and extent.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. Ill

(2.) God possesses inherently all the attributes
of self-conscious, mental, and moral personality at
every point of His omnipresence and is communi-
cable to and with all ingenuous, receptive minds
by His Holy Spirit dwelling in and inspiring them.
Hence manifold divine manifestations and revelations
have been made during the successive periods of
human history, in some measure to men generally but
especially and with marked demonstrations of reality
and power to and through eminent personages or
mediators, of whom Jesus of Nazareth was chief.

(3.) There is a vast realm ot immaterial and
immortal existence inspiring and comprehending
the present state of being, wherein dwelleth an
innumerable company of angels and spirits of mul-
tiform grade and character sometimes manifestable
to kindred spirits dwelling in the flesh ; and all
the children of men from the beginning to the
end of time are by nature and providence destined
through a resurrectional process to enter that
realm and occupy a place there on higher or lower
levels of attainment forevermore.

(4.) All mankind are by nature moral agents,
possessing greatly diversified degrees of original
capacity and acquired talent, and are therefore
proper subjects of moral law, invested with more
or less of personal responsibility, and amenable
alike to discipline and to punishment or reward in
whatever state of being or at whatever stage of
development they may be.

(5.) There is a righteous and perfect retribu-
tion for all moral agents wherever existing, by

112 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

which God in the administration of His divine
government causes every one to experience sooner
or later such enjoyment or suffering as is most
just, merciful, and salutary; always aiming therein
at the highest and most durable individual, social,
and universal good for both time and eternity.

(6.) Moral and spiritual regeneration by a rising
out of animal selfishness and sinful indulgence
into the love of heavenly principles — of man and
God — as the supreme motive and impulse in life,
is indispensable to the deliverance of every human
soul from the power of evil and its attainment of
Christlike holiness and happiness in this or any
possible state of existence.

(7.) It is divinely ordained that, under the
mediatorial reign of Christ, good will finally triumph
over all evil in the world of humanity, righteous-
ness and peace everywhere prevail, and '• God be
all in all."

2. C/uHst, The Scriptures, Reason, Conscience.

(i.) The historical Jesus of Nazareth is pre-
eminently the Son of God, the foreordained Christ,
Lord and Saviour of the world ; to be loved, rev-
erenced, trusted, and obeyed in all sincerity and
loyalty of heart.

(2.) The Scriptures of the Old and New Testa-
ment contain records of indispensable value to
mankind, especially those that relate to the Christ,
which include promises of his coming and trust-
worthy testimony concerning his birth, the essen-
tial spirit and principles of his religion, his life

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 113

and ministry, his death, resurrection, glorification,
and ultimate triumph over all the powers of dark-
ness and iniquity.

(3.) These Scriptures are to be reverenced and
studied in order to ascertain the facts, truths,
doctrines to which they bear witness ; always re-
garding the spirit rather than the letter of them
as of vital importance to the salvation and happi-
ness of mankind.

(4.) The New Testament Scriptures transcend
the Old, as they supplement and fulfill them in
their teachings of absolute truth and righteousness.

(5.) The free exercise of the reasoning faculties
in man — the understanding and the judgment —
is necessary to the ascertainment and comprehen-
sion of divine truth in its various bearings upon
human life and destiny; but the reason has no
authority whatever against the truth when once
assuredly ascertained.

(6.) Fidelity to one's own conscientious convic-
tions of truth and duty is essential to moral
integrity and progress in the Christian life; but
conscience is under imperative obligations always
to conform itself to the ever-revealing, ever-rising
light of God.

III. Personal Righteousness in the True
Christian Church.

I. God, the universal Father, must be worshiped
in spirit and in truth, not in formal pretence ro
glittering display to be seen by men ; not in any

114 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

merely external solemnity or demonstration ; not
necessarily at any hallowed time or place ; but
always and everywhere with profound reverence
and adoration for His moral attributes and perfec-
tions of character as an infinitely perfect, omni-
present, conscious spirit ; and in proportionate
degree with a like reverence and adoration for all
that is absolutely divine.

2. Men must practice humility, self-denial, and
self-sacrifice, whereinsoever self-esteem and self-
indulgence are contrary to divine law and order,
even unto great suffering and martyrdom for right-
eousness sake.

3. They must be just to all sentient beings of
every name and grade, from the infinite Creator
Himself to the lowest creature of His forming
hand ; in deed, in word, in thought ; yet never
unmerciful and vindictive.

4. They must be truthful in all exercises and
manifestations of mind, in all manner of speech
and action, without deceit or guile of any kind,
and without resort to oath-taking or fear of penal
vengeance from God or man.

5. They must love all moral and sentient beings,
from God, the all-perfect One, to the most feeble,
most degraded, and vilest of His human children,
with that love which " suffereth long and is kind"
and which "worketh no ill" to its object.

6. They must be pure, chaste, temperate, dec-
orous, and orderly in all things ; in desire, thought,
motive, word, deed.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 115

7. They must be patient and persevering, stead-
fast and courageous, in the furthering of all right
aims and pursuits.

8. They must unceasingly endeavor by watchful-
ness and prayer, by constant progress in holy living,
to become more and more Christlike in all respects ;
to be perfect in righteousness and love as God is
perfect ; trusting ever in divine strength and grace
to supply their deficiencies and enable them to
press forward successfully toward the ideal man-
hood and womanhood of the Gospel of Christ.

IV. Principles of Social Progress and Order
IN THE Church.

1. The supreme, universal, and perfect Father-
hood of God.

2. The universal brotherhood of man and all
finite moral agents.

3. The declared perfect love of God to all
mankind.

4. The required perfect love of man to God.

5. The required perfect love of man to man,
friend and foe.

6. The required just reproof and disfellowship
of evil-doers.

7. The required abstinence from resistence of evil
with evil.

8. The designed and required unity and harmony
of all Christlike souls.

116 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

V. Organization of the True Christian Church.

1. There should be some prescribed, definite,
and clearly understood conditions of membership.

2. There should be wisely prepared consitutional
formularies of organic association, to be intelligently
adopted and scrupulously observed.

3. There should be some recognized, cordially
approved, and duly authenticated order of Christian
ministry.

4. There should be some recognized and duly
appointed official servants to judiciously care for
and execute the various departments of church
activity.

5. There should be some clearly defined and
easily understood rules of wholesome discipline.

6. There should be provision for the revising
and amending of the constitution and established
rules of the church, in order to adapt them to the
changing conditions of ecclesiastical life and to
the ever-advancing progress of the race.

VI. Methods of Administration in the
True Church.

I. Members of the true church of Christ should
hold frequent, regular, and well ordered gatherings
or convocations for mutual edification, religious
services, and other purposes conducive of the
nurture and growth of the divine life in their own
souls and of the moral and spiritual improvement
of society at large.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 117

2. The ministry of the true church should com-
mend itself to the laity and to the world by its
intellectual competency, its high spirituality and
consecration to its work, its exemplary conduct
and character, and its efificiency in prosecuting its
holy mission.

3. There should be hearty and constant co-
operation of ministers, subordinate officers, and
members generally in the endeavor to promote the
prosperity of the church, the betterment of human-
ity, and the extension of the domain of truth and
righteousness in the earth.

4. Wholesome discipline and good order in all
departments of church life should be sedulously
maintained.

5. There should be uncompromising fidelity to
acknowledged essentials on the part of all church
members, while the largest liberty is allowed in all
other respects.

6. Due regard should be paid to gradation of
discipleship and to the successive steps of Chris-
tian progress, from the youngest child and the
least advanced convert to the loftiest and most
noble saint ; but great care should be taken
never to lower the standard of pure, practical
Christianity.

Remarks.

Having thus formulated and synthetized what j
deem the absolute essentials of the true Christian
church according to my clearest understanding and

118 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

best judgment, it may be asked to what use such
a result of my thought and effort can be put.
How can I make what I have done in this matter
serve the great ends of life, enhance the interests
of organized religion, and promote the cause
and kingdom of our Lord ? I reply that I con-
fidently expect and prophesy the rise at a not
very distant day of a new and regenerate form
of the Christian church ; one occupying a much
higher plane and conforming much more closely
to the primitive ideal than that which now exists
as represented by any one of the multiform
denominations composing it. Such a church will
need and will have a distinctive declaratory plat-
form or statement of essential divine principles.
I have herein presented, suggestively, at least, the
outline and substance of such a platform or state-
ment, and I commend it prospectively to the con-
sideration of those whom God shall honor with the
privilege of inaugurating so holy and glorious a
movement as I have indicated, for revision and
adoption ; modifying and recasting it without chang-
ing its vital character to meet the then existing
circumstances and needs of the church itself and
of the world.

Meantime, I am aware that the great mass of
professing Christians, whatever the creed or name,
now parading or perhaps masquerading under the
banner of the Nazarene, will for various reasons
set my scheme at naught as in their opinion fatally
objectionable. On the one hand so-called Liberal
Christians will condenm it outright as a creed \

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 119

which, whether true or false, good or bad, \s per se
abhorent to their religious education, their con-
victions and their tastes. Besides, most of them
would dissent widely if not altogether from some
of my specified principles and rules of duty, how-
ever they might give their personal assent to a
majority of them in a general, non-committal way.
On the other hand I must expect as a matter of
course, that the devotees of the long-established
statements of faith in all the great denominational
churches of Christendom — the self-styled Evangeli-
cals— will quietly ignore, or, if they speak, will
denounce my manifesto as not simply uncalled for
and utterly inadequate but as dangerously heretical,
both in what it contains and in what it omits in
its category of essential items of belief. Such will
very naturally reaffirm the excellency and all-
sufficiency of their own formularies and treat mine
with emphatic though perhaps sincere reprobation
or contempt.

What then 1 What am I to do about all this "^
What ought I to do } Shall I give way to it and
keep silent .'* Ought I to retire ignominiously from
the field of conflict for the truth of God as it has
been revealed to me } Heaven forbid ! I have a
testimony to bear for that truth and for the right-
eousness which is built upon it as upon everlasting
foundations. I have studied long and intensely
the parties of the religious world referred to ; their
positions, their arguments, their spirit, their labors,
and their fruits. And I know beyond all perad-
venture that they are entrenched in great and

120 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

indefensible errors which must sooner or later be
abandoned. They cannot be more confident that
they are right and I wrong than I am that the
reverse is true. I therefore join issue with them,
not in wrath or scorn, but yet boldly and uncom-
promisingly. I shall therefore assail their positions
which they assume to be impregnable, and defend
my own without fear, favor, or supension of hos-
tilities, till death paralyzes my powers, using only
the weapons of spiritual warfare wielded in candor
and love but with unwavering assurance of the
justice and final triumph of my cause.

Before entering upon the conflict, either with
my anti-creed Liberal Christian brethren or with my
brethren of the various false-creed schools, which
I propose to open in my next discourse and con-
tinue in several subsequent . ones, I will devote a
little time and effort as I bring the present one to
a close with a careful statement of what I deem
the legitimate requisites, characteristics, and limita-
tions of a sound Christian creed or platform of
faith and practice. This will prepare the way for
what is to follow and render what will then be
said more clear and comprehensible.

I. It should be an honest statement of what
appears from a human standpoint to be funda-
mental truths believed to be divine in their essence
and therefore obligatory upon the intellects, hearts,
and consciences of men, without assuming that
the statement itself is perfect, infallible, and
unimprovable.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 121

2. It should be strictly Christian throughout ;
containing such and only such propositions as are
fairly deducible from the New Testament Scriptures
and therein set forth as of vital and indispensable
value. It should not magnify mere incidentals,
expedients, or temporary features into fundamentals,
nor rely on doubtful, obscure, or highly figurative
passages as trustworthy vehicles of truth, but on
the plain concurrent teachings of Christ and his
Apostles, so interperted and applied as to preserve
their unquestionable original meaning, spirit, and
ultimate purpose.

3. Its affirmed fundamental truths should be
such as have a natural, necessary, and positive
tendency to induce true righteousness, that is,
moral and spiritual likeness to Christ, in those
who truly believe in and receive them. Metaphysi-
cal abstractions, scholastic substitutes, barren dog-
mas, and cloudy mysticisms, having no practical
value and no definite relation to character, should
be excluded.

4. It should assume and declare that a living
practical faith in all the essential principles of truth
and righteouness is indispensable to the full and
perfect salvation and happiness of any and every
human being ; but it should not assume that such
faith in any case is necessary to secure God's love
and favor in time or eternity, nor that it is neces-
sary to lower degrees of salvation and happiness,
nor to the just approval of any truth or good by
whomsoever exemplified, nor to the hope that all
human souls however sin-lost and incorrigible will

122 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

finally embrace it and enjoy its blessings and
delights. And it should peremptorily forbid all
persecution, injustice, and unkindness even, to
dissenters and seceders.

5. It should recognize and conform to the law
of progress, adapting itself to different degrees and
grades of discipleship ; no one being required to
profess anything of faith or practice which is beyond
his or her comprehension, and no one being allowed
to imagine or suppose that he or she has mastered
the science of divine living as inculcated by Christ
while as yet in its rudiments, having attained unto
little or nothing more than the first principles of
the divine oracles.

6. It should contain the germinal principle or
potential substance of all that is to be taught,
required, or promulgated in the church which
adopts it as absolutely essential to Christian living,
but should provide for the largest liberty in all
things beside.

7. It should be thoroughly consistent with itself,
with reason, with the known facts and laws of
nature, and with all the unquestionable verities
of science ; but it should not deify reason, nature,
science, or in any way exalt them above
God, Christ, divine revelations, or the eternal
realities.

8. It should unequivocally provide for its own
re-examination, revision, and emendation from time
to time as occasion requires, for re-adjustment to
changed conditions and circumstances, needs and
exigencies, and never be made a bar to the intel-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 123-

lectual, moral, and spiritual development and prog-
ress of its adherents.

Having thus given expression to my views and
well-settled convictions respecting a sound Christian
creed or declaration of faith, I am prepared to con-
front those who reject all such tabulated and
acknowledged forms of doctrine or statements of
belief as hostile to freedom of thought and opinion
and hindrances to the onward march of the individaul
soul and of the race toward perfection. My con-
tention with such is reserved for my next discourse.
Meanwhile may divine guidance and inspiration
direct us in the way that leads towards and into-
all truth and good.

DISCOURSE VIII.

IMPOBTANCE OF A DECLARATION OF FAITH.

•* There is one body and one Spirit even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism ;
one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in you all." — Ephs. iv. 4-6.

" Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without waver-
ing; for he is faithful who promised." — Heb. x. 23.

Before entering upon the more definite discussion
of the subject of the present discourse, I have
something to say by way of introduction in regard
to my Liberal Christian brethren, who, as a rule,
though to a varying extent, are self-confessed anti-
creedists, both in theory and practice. They not
only object to any formal declarations of belief as
tests of church membership or criteria of character
but also as expressions or formulated statements
of their own personal or associated opinions and
convictions of truth and duty, however conscien-
tiously and firmly held they may be. Most of those
referred to very likely agree with me upon nearly
all important points of speculative theology and
personal righteousness as well as upon matters of
ecclesiastical polity, though dissenting it may be in
a few particulars. But they honestly distrust,
disown, and denounce creeds, per se, deeming

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 125-

them hostile to mental freedom and true religious
progress.

There are several schools or grades of anti-
creedists, though they are all of one family genus,
and agree in making religious liberty in the church*
of more importance than unity of faith in definitely
declared essentials. The most ultra of them pro-
test against all standards of theological or moral
doctrine and all distinctively religious organizations.
Such are, at least, self-consistent, albeit they are
mere discussionists and iconoclasts, so far as reli-
gion is concerned, to whom it would be annihilation
to enter into any formal agreement with those most
in accord with them or even with each other.
Others would consent to a general declaration of
recognized truths, provided it were sufficiently flexi-
ble and accommodating. Still others concede that an
acknowledgement of faith in Christ and Christian-
ity is important, but would leave all interpreta-
tions and appliances of the same to each individual
judgment and conscience. While yet another, and
the most conservative school, perhaps, would take
the Bible and especially the New Testament as an
all-sufflcient basis of church relationship and rule
of faith and practice.

Among these multiform orders of anti-creedists
have been numbered men and women of high and
eminent standing, distinguished for their talents,,
learning, piety, moral virtues, and philanthropic
labors, and as a whole, it may be confessed, no
less sincere, intelligent, and exemplary in their walk
and conversation than is the average of those who.

126 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

hold to the value and necessity to true church life
and to individual character of definite, well-appointed
beliefs or confessions of faith. Yet their sincerity,
intelligence, and personal moral excellence may
co-exist with radical error upon the points at issue
between me and them, and should not shield them
from honest criticism or from the shafts of vigor-
ous but friendly attack on the part of any one
who may differ from them, as I feel it to be my duty
to do in the present case. With this preliminary
statement I proceed to the discussion of the ques-
tion in hand: — endeavoring to demonstrate as I
go on the truth of the proposition that the true
Christian church must have a creed or platform of
faith and practice, and substantially such an one
as I have definitely outlined. Nor shall I refrain
in the task before me from using freely the much
abused and in some circles the much discredited
and dishonored term. Creed.

What is a creed } The word is no doubt derived
from the Latin credo, which means, / believe.
Hence its legitimate use as applied to a confession
or statement of belief in certain formal propositions
purporting to embody the great, essential principles
of truth and duty pertaining to the realm of reli-
gion and the religious life. Whatever statement of
doctrine touching the theory or practice of men
as moral and spiritual beings may be received as
true by any individual or society and essential to
human salvation and happiness is properly the creed
of that person or people. It may consist of few or
many propositions; it may be written or unwritten;

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 127

it may be general or specific ; it may be logically or
illogically expressed ; it may bear one or another
name; — it is still a creed, a declaration of what
is actually held as essential truth. Thus every
sincere religionist or moral philosopher, every think-
ing person whose thinking brings him to a definite
conclusion of his understanding, must have a creed.
For the reason that he necessarily bases his reli-
gion or morality or opinion upon some assumed
truth ; otherwise he has no sure ground for his
position. His belief may be beyond doubt as based
on actual knowledge, or it may be more or less
hypothetical as based on inference or intuition —
on foundations of the reality of which in the
nature of the case there can be no absolute proof,
though proof sufficient for all real human need.
We walk often more by faith than by sight ; and
yet we get on all the same. The most inveterate
skeptic opposing any and every form of doctrinal
belief must have a creed, though it be but a nega-
tive, unformulated one, or his argument is a mere
flow of words signifying nothing. He must believe
in not believing and by his effort to defend him-
self in his anti-creedism cuts the ground from under
his own feet.

And yet many anti-creedists are most assump-
•tive and dogmatic in denouncing assumption and
dogmatism, as they often are in affirming and
urging their own postulates and theses. Creed-
impugning Liberal Christians profess to hold and
teach the doctrine of a personal God, of His dis-
tinctive Fatherhood, of the leadership of Christ, of

128 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the brotherhood of man, of moral responsibility,
of an immortal existence, etc. Now if these things
are really believed and if they are urged upon
congregations and upon the world as worthy of
acceptance, do they not constitute to all intents
and purposes, a creed, a statement of faith ; and,
if so, why should they not be called such and pub-
licly acknowledged accordingly ? Or, on the other
hand, if they are not worthy of belief, not suitable
to be formulated in a statement of faith, why should
they be so emphatically and even dogmatically
announced and proclaimed abroad ? The only con-
sistent anti-creedists are those persons who have
no settled convictions of truth and duty, no funda-
mental principles in morals and religion, and prefer
to have none ; who sit as critics upon all who have
them and often as their accusers and detractors ;
who hold all matters of thought and judgment in
solution ; who profess to be par excellence mere
inquirers, investigators, free discussionists ; who are
ever searching after but never finding the truth ;
who prize freedom of dissent above sympathetic
and co-operative unity ; who deem assent to divine
realities and conformity to any standards an offense
to personal dignity ; and who oppose and reprobate
not only all forms of religious organization, but all
systematic, helpful, associated effort in any behalf; —
man working with man in a common cause to
common ends whatever they may be. With such
it is hardly worth while to argue, at least in this
connection.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 129

But with those who profess to believe in Christ
and his church in some honest fashion, and who,
though they decry creeds, pet se, really have one,
as their profession implies, I shall proceed to argue
hopefully. At the outset let us inquire what the
true Christian church is. Who are its constituents.?
I ask. Not anti-religious skeptics, having no settled
convictions of divine truth and no high and holy
objects to live for — not mere free inquirers and
discussionists, but persons who avow their sincere
faith that Jesus of Nazareth is in some sense the
Christ ; or, at least, in the providence of God,
the spiritual Leader, Exemplar, Savior of mankind,
and who acknowledge themselves to be his disci-
ples, humbly endeavoring to learn of him and to
follow him as he is made known to them in the
New Testament writings, which they deem a trust-
worthy record, if properly interpretated and under-
stood, of him, of his teachings, and of his work
in the world. They do not claim to be ''individual
sovereigns " in matters of faith and practice, each
one standing in his own lot regardless of all beside,
but ''fellow-citizens with the saints and of the
household of God, built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief corner stone." They consider them-
selves sacredly bound not to lord it over one another^
nor to strive for any pre-eminence save that of
being most humble and serviceable to God and
man. They regard themselves as co-laborers
together for the common good and for the salva-
tion of the world, related to each other personally

130 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and collectively as are the members of the human
body in one organism, having different offices to
fill but filling them without friction or schism, and
constituting in their associated capacity what is
termed "the body of Christ," he being its head,
whose most impressive prayer was that '' that they
all might be one as he and the Father are one."
This being the case it seems to me evident that
the Christian church must have its standard of
faith or platform of fundamental principles, sub-
stantially as set forth in my last discourse, and for
several definite reasons which I proceed to state.

1. There can be in the very nature of things
no such heartfelt, effective unity and co-operation
as has been suggested and as Christianity enjoins
without concordant ideas concerning the great
fundamentals of religious truth and duty. Not
only must there be spiritual harmony, but on vital
matters, in respect to the essentials of life and
character, there must also be intellectual harmony
no less. Diversity of opinion may be allowed and
even encouraged upon points of minor importance,
but upon central ideas or principles, the distinctive
peculiarities of Christian association, there must be
substantial unanimity, — a common and definitely
understood ground of thought and action. " How
can two (or any larger number) walk together except
they be agreed." The old apothegm holds good
here : "In non-essentials, liberty; in essentials, unity j
in all things, charity."

2. The true church of Christ is an educative
and propagative institution, and is equipped with

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 131

the various instrumentalities requisite to that com-
plex work. But what is to be taught, promulgated^
sent abroad throughout the world ? Of course that
for which the church primarily stands ; those great
doctrines, principles, ideas, which are represented
in the church and to which common consent is
formally or impliedly given. Otherwise there is
confusion worse confounded ; a jargon of ambiguous,
conflicting voices, none of them having authority or
significance. In such a case the church itself has
no reason for being.

3. Moreover, the true church is a disciplinary,
progressive, perfective institution. But there can
be no discipline where there is no staadard of
thought and conduct. Even self-discipline, which
is involved in the disciplinary character of the
church, requires and necessitates such a standard.
Much more, mutual discipline ; the training of one
another to the actualization of high ideals, the
development in one another of the moral and spir-
itual capacities by counsel, example, and other
modes of helpfulness. And how can progress be
made except by an increase of that knowledge of
essential truth in which progress consists, be it
scientific, metaphysical, moral or religious progress.
And that essential truth must be formulated, clothed
in speech that renders it apprehensible by the
human mind and heart, or it avails nothing. And
so it is with respect to the perfective agency of
the church ; its mission in carrying the souls of men
onward and upward to the highest possible degrees
of attainment in virtue and piety. Virtue and piety

132 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

are ideals of excellence born of essential correspond-
ing principles inhering in the constitution of things,
a recognition and appropriation of which constitute
the nutriment upon which souls grow into the
measure of a perfect manhood in Christ Jesus.

Such are my three principal reasons for holding
to the necessity of some such creed or declaration
of faith as I have suggested for the proper and
effective organization and administration of the
Christian church. I will now notice the principal
objections that dissenting brethren have made and
may still make to my position, some of which have
already been hinted at.

I. Creeds, it is said, especially definite, formal
ones, restrict and endanger freedom of thought and
action. This cannot be true of creeds, per se, but
only of false and misleading ones. It certainly can
not be true of those which, however imperfect
and defective, provide for their own emendation and
make it the duty of those accepting them to secure
such emendation whenever its need becomes obvi-
ous. If it be true that creeds in and of themselves
imperil liberty" of thought and conduct then it is
true that absolute principles of truth and duty do
the same ; for a creed is only a definitive state-
ment of- such principles so far as they are under-
stood and sincerely believed. Does it impair one's
mental freedom to have certain well-settled con-
victions of truth and right, or, having them, to
express them in certain plainly stated propositions,
making them intelligible to the human understand-
ing .? Does it endanger one's right or power

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 133

to think for himself, to hold that there are certain
principles of wisdom and beautiful divine order
upon which the universe is founded and by which
it is governed, or, holding that there are such, to
frame them into human language that so they may
be the more intelligible to the common mind, and
perchance to himself, and thus be made a power
of order, virtue, and harmony in the life of man-
kind ? I can not so see it. On the other hand I
maintain that the more such principles are put into
understandable forms and made real and vital to
men the greater liberty do they enjoy. It is the
truth that makes men free. Ignorance of the truth,
or the truth inadequately expressed, the truth in
obscure, ambiguous forms, enslaves men ; often
deceives, misleads, destroys them. He only is
blest in his freedom who by his freedom has come
to a clear understanding of the essential conditions
of moral order in the universe and conforms to
them. So do his energies acquire a larger free-
dom and his power of good a broader empire.
And by the diffusion of those principles, which
can only be done by embodying them in proper
forms of speech, by giving them the character if
not the exact form of a creed, he makes his grow-
ing freedom a means of enfranchisement and
redemption to other men and to the world. But
may he not mistake, putting error for truth and
raising a false or defective standard of belief ? Of
course he may. But, if he do this, he can recast
his convictions and reconstruct his creed when
greater light dawns upon him. And this he will

134 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

do if he make progress in the true way of life.
No one should be bound not to change his convic-
tions or his creed but rather to change either or
both when they do not represent truly the decisions
of his thought and conscience. And thus will he
not restrict and imperil his real freedom but aug-
ment and ennoble it.

2. Again, it is said that the creeds of the
nominal Christian church since apostolic times
have required assent to falsities, absurdities, para-
doxical subtleties, barren dogmas, nearly all of
which have occasioned strife, division, persecution,
or some other abomination hostile to the spirit of
Christ and to the truest welfare of mankind. Then
let them be amended or superseded by better ones ;
such as I have outlined. But while I concede the
existence of the faults and evils alleged, I am not
certain that they all resulted from the established
creeds. The intellectual and moral condition of
society outside as well as inside the nominal church
had much to do with the matter and would have
produced the same or perhaps greater mischiefs if
there had been no creeds. There was truth as well
as error in those creeds and I am inclined to
believe that notwithstanding their grievous faults
they did more good than harm. Be that as it may
their defects and consequent evils form no valid
arguments against creeds per se, any more than the
defects and evils attendant upon any other human
interest, as for instance, education and educational
institutions, prove the inherent inutility or wrong-
fulness of the interest itself.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 135

3. It may also be said that there is no need of
a statement of faith more specific or elaborate than
that of Peter at the outset, to wit : — "I believe
that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God."
This may have been and no doubt was sufficient,
at first, for beginners in the Christian life and may
be now for inductives, though I deem additions
important. But times and circumstances change,
requiring change, more or less, in declarations of
Christian truth and duty. Essentials are evermore
the same; but incidentals — formularies and speci-
fications — are capable of modification ; must be
adapted to the needs of varying states and ages.
Adequate as the confession quoted was in that far-
off day, the day of small things, something more
comprehensive and complete is required in the
present age of the world ; a higher, broader, clearer
declaration of essential principles, of the founda-
tion truths of pure religion. The regeneration of the
church, the development of the human mind, the
reconstruction of society, the order of the world's
progress, all demand it. Because long continued
perversion and corruption in the church have
turned men away from the pure Christianity of
the Master and beguiled them with dogmas, for-
malities, and conventionalities not sanctioned but
condemned in the New Testament, leading them
into gross .error and superstition, they need to be
enlightened, brought back to and re-established in
the truth as it is in Jesus. And in order to do this
it is absolutely necessary to state anew what that

136 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

truth is in its essentials. To dispel the darkness
the true light must be made to shine.

Moreover, the pulpit and religious press of the
present day, with rare exceptions, do not give
either professed Christians or the world in general
any clear, definite idea of what either theoretical
or practical Christianity is. This is owing in part
to the still prevailing dominance of ancient false
dogmas and traditions concerning Christianity, and
in part to the vague, equivocal, illogical, and foggy
manner in which it is taught and enforced. The
absolute, pure, exalted theology, piety, morality of
the Gospel are not clearly set forth ; nor the
intrinsic nature, purpose, and results of Christ's
mission ; nor the distinguishing particulars in which
Christianity differs from and is superior to other
religions and philosophies, or, in its legitimate out-
come and results, excels existing civilization. There
are all sorts of preaching, exposition, and exhorta-
tion, some of which is interesting and superficially
good ; but even this often leaves the mind in doubt
or confusion as to truth and duty, and the high
claims of the law of God. Christianity and world-
liness are so mixed together ; love and hate, kind-
ness and cruelty, peace and war, philanthropy and
inhumanity, universal brotherhood and a narrow
patriotism, piety and practical ungodliness are
so intermingled and blended in a common mass,
that the average understanding is perplexed, dis-
tracted, confounded thereby rather than enlight-
ened, inspired, and assured in regard either to the
law of righteousness or to the line of duty to God

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 137

and man. In such a confused, bewildering condi-
tion of things it becomes an imperative duty to
formulate a statement of fundamental principles,
to make declaration of the great essentials of faith
and practice, that so men may be instructed and
enlarged in thought concerning the things of the
kingdom of God and won to consecrated service
under Him who is the Chief Ruler in that
kingdom.

Finally, indefinitism, mystification, superficiality,
and at best an unintelligent goodyism will continue
to prevail in the religious world until there is a
breaking through all these pointless platitudes,
glittering generalities, and pietistic mummeries,
and a plain, unequivocal, comprehensible statement
made of what Christianity is in its purity and
original excellence and in the inexorable obligations
it lays upon the minds, the hearts, and the con-
sciences of men. When this is done, and not till
then, will there be reared a class of Christians
and a church composed of intelligent, earnest,
robust, heroic men and women, ** Strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might." Then will
the church be renewed not only in spirituality and
devoutness, but in holy courage and unfaltering
zeal, going on its way conquering and to conquer
until its victory over sin and the world is complete
and universal.

4. Once more, it is said that we have the Bible
and is not that a sufficient rule of faith and prac-
tice ? Not unless we make a better use of it than
most professing Christians have done in the past.

138 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

How have they mingled its history, chronology, geog-
raphy, genealogy, allegory, parable, poetry, hyper-
bole, and sumptuous oriental imagery with its piety,
morality, philanthropy, and lofty spirituality together
in one conglomerate mass, labeling it all the word
of God and counting it all equally worthy of accepta-
tion and equally "profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ' to
the offence of an enlightened understanding, of all
sound exegesis, and of every high-minded soul !
How have they joined hands with the skeptic and
the blasphemer in quoting it as authority for the
support of slavery, intolerance, capital punishment,
war, the use of intoxicants, persecution, and almost
every known abomination that outraged and injured
man and dishonored God ! How have they, on
assumed Bible authority, separated themselves into
a host of wrangling sects, contending oftentimes
unto bloodshed and death for the mastery, more
diligent in striving to overcome each other than
to conquer the evil of their own hearts and the
wickedness of the world, a disgrace to themselves
and a hindrance to the cause of Christ! What is
needed to remedy this deplorable state of things —
this unreasonable, loose, confused, mischievous view
of the Bible — this misapprehension and abuse of
its authority, is a condensed tabulation of its great
distinguishing ideas, of its fundamental principles
and eternal truths, stripped of their husky ver-
biage, of all incidental adjuncts, and put before
the world in the simplest, most easily understood
terms possible, justly representing in human Ian-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 139

guage the religion of Christ as he taught and
exempHfied it and his Apostles after him according
to the New Testament Scriptures. Such is my
deliberate and conscientious judgment concerning
this matter, and, being such, I can give the objec-
tion under notice no real respect.

5. Finally, it may be said, and is said, that
Christianity is not a creed but a life, not a system
of formulated doctrines, but character — a loving,
holy, Christlike life and character. Whoever leads
such a life and exemplifies such a character is a
Christian whatever his creed, or without any creed
at all. I will yield to no one in magnifying the
importance of a loving, holy, Christlike life and
character; but I cannot disparage the value of a
creed on that account. If the plea urged proves
anything it proves too much. It assumes that there
was such a personage as Jesus Christ ; that he
illustrated such virtues as love, as holiness, com-
bined with certain other moral and spiritual quali-
ties, constituting in the aggregate what is termed
Christlikeness ; and that these qualities are worthy
of esteem, reverence, emulation. Furthermore, it
implies even to the extent of demonstration that
he who urges the plea has in fact a creed, a form
of belief ; though it may not be a written one, it
may yet be a real one notwithstanding. Nay it
must be so. He must believe in some sense in
Jesus; he must believe that he existed, that he
was a great teacher, benefactor, leader of mankind,
that he inculcated and illustrated great principles
of truth and righteousness making him worthy of

140 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

remembrance and imitation ; he must believe those
principles, when applied to human life and charac-
ter, are capable of exalting, ennobling, perfecting
them, harmonizing them with the life and character
of God ; he must believe, too, in some fashion in
the credibility of the Christian Scriptures as a
biography of Christ, as a record of his labors,
teachings, sufferings, and death, and as a testi-
monial to those truths and that spirit which are
the foundation stones, the vital forces, the animat-
ing energy of his religion. And if he does not
•believe these things his assertion of the supremacy of
the Christian life and character has no basis in reason ;
if he does believe them then his objection is without
justification. His own position is its sufficient
refutation. The very objection invalidates itself.

Or, admitting for a moment that it has force
and especially that part of it which affirms that
whoever possess the Christlike life and character
is a Christian, whatever his creed or without any
creed at all ; admitting this, it follows that the
truth has no intrinsic moral power to mould the
hearts and lives of men to high and noble issues, that
Paganism, or Brahminism, or Judaism, or Nothing-
-arianism is as likely to produce a righteous, holy
life as Christianity ; in other words, that right ideas,
right thoughts, right convictions, have no definite
relation to life and character, and that error is as
important and effective as truth as a factor in the
problem of personal uplifting and perfecting, and
of human progress and happiness — an absurdity
on the face of it.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 141

In drawing this discourse to a close I may
remark that what I have said is sufficient to dis-
prove the allegations of my anti-creedist friends of
whatever school, and to show the importance of a
definite platform of essential moral and religious
doctrines, principles, and ideas, upon which the
Christian church must stand in order to do its
divinely-commissioned work in the world ; a platform
substantially like that framed in my last. In my
next I shall enter upon the exposition, verification,
and defence of that platform in its several dis-
tinguishing features and characteristics.

DISCOURSE IX.

EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE OF CARDINAL OBJECTS.

"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast
heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." —
2 Tim. i. 13.

" Be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." —
I Pet iii. 13.

Having shown in my last discourse that a creed
or platform of distinctive principles and objects is
necessary to the proper organization and efficient
administration of a Christian church, indicating
some of the characteristics and limitations to be
observed in framing one, it is now incumbent on
me to explain, verify, and defend my own, as
already presented to my readers, which I assume
to be founded on reason and the fundamental truth of
the New Testament, differing though it does in more
or less important respects from all those that have
been tenaciously held and honestly believed by
the varying sections of Christendom. The devotees
of long established systems of faith, strenuous in
maintaining and perpetuating their own ancient
confessions, will, of course, disallow and denounce
mine as erroneous and misleading in whatever par-

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 143

ticular it differs from theirs, whether by addition,
omission, or contradiction. I must therefore meet
them in advance fairly and openly upon every point
at issue between us. I commence my exposition
with what I term the Cardinal Objects of a Chris-
tian church.

Whether there has ever been or now is any
formal statement in regard to this feature of my
platform, corresponding to what I have placed under
this name, in any other ecclesiastical formularies, I
am not certain . Probably not ; though that fact
does not render its value less obvious to the
thoughtful mind. Yet, no doubt, all religious
bodies have put forth declarations, more or less
explicit, setting forth the purposes and aims which
they were instituted to promote and secure. Be
this as it may, it is my duty to explain, verify,
and defend my own position in this matter, and
hence I proceed to do so.

Object i. *' To train its members and depend-
ents, and all who voluntarily place themselves under
its guardianship and tutelage, by wisely chosen and
applied instruction and discipline, to habitual, per.
manent Christlikeness of faith, hope, and love ; of
spirit, conduct, and character." In this definite
statement I have included all those persons, old
and young, who may be properly regarded as in
any way related to the church, whether by positive
formal admission to its membership or otherwise,
and to whom the church is under special obliga-
tions to watch over, care for, and qualify for useful
and honorable service of God and man. Wisely

144 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

chosen and applied instruction and discipline include
all justifiable Christian methods of teaching; of
informing the mind and developing the native
capacities of a human being, of regulating and con-
trolling the conduct, of correcting faults and errors
of whatever sort, and of ennobling and perfecting
the character and life. Habitual and permanent
Christlikeness of faith, hope, and love — of spirit,
conduct, and character, is the being conformed to
Christ's teaching and example in respect to essen-
tial truths believed, in respect to the ruling motive,
disposition, temper, in respect to personal right-
eousness of every kind, and in respect to all that
constitutes moral excellence and worth ; not includ-
ing official dignity, authority, power, and glory. To
train its subjects into the likeness of such a model
is to render them true Christians, theoretically
and practically, nominally and really, employing all
the agencies, instrumentalities, and co-operative
influences of the church faithfully to the accom-
plishment of that great end.

It is hardly possible to conceive that any com-
pany of intelligent persons assuming the name and
the prerogatives of a church of Christ should deny
or seriously question what I have stated to be one
of the Cardinal Objects of the true church — an
absolutely essential principle of the Christian faith.
Yet some persons claiming to be followers of the
Nazarene might question the form in which I have
put the matter ; others might doubt the need or
desirability of formulating it at all ; while others
still and indeed many might deny altogether the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. * 145

truth of my proposition. There are those today
who say, as there have been multitudes in the
past who have said, that it was not a cardinal
object of the church -as, it was not a cardinal object
of Christ's mission, to make men like Christ, to
renew and transform human character and bring
it into accord with the character of Jesus, to make
men pure, loving, true, holy, but rather to impart
to them what is termed saving faith, a true knowl-
edge of God and of the way of salvation by a
crucified Redeemer ; to induce them to repent, to
come to Jesus, to accept the conditions of salva-
tion ; to prepare them for death and fit them for
heaven. Of how many an exhortation, sermon,
magazine article, volume, has that been the burden,
the main thing insisted upon, the one thing need-
ful, the most important of all possible concerns^
upon which hinged incalculable destinies of good
or ill, of happiness or misery, of beatific joy or
despairing agony for a never-ending eternity. Not
that Christlikeness was not a good and desirable-
thing in the estimation of the authors of such
application of the divine word ; not that holiness
of heart and life, excellence of character, personal
righteousness, etc., were not important acquirements
in their proper places, but that they were not
the chief thing, the essential thing, the crowning
object of human concern and pursuit, the great
end of life. That was to be reconciled to God,
to believe certain dogmas, to accept certain terms of
salvation, to make the calling and election sure,,
to escape endless tortures, to secure endless bliss..

146 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The other attainments — virtue, purity, love, holi-
ness— would follow in the train of those specified
as incidental to them, consequential of them, deriv-
ing worth from them, but were not of indispensable
value in and of themselves, the transcendent, ines-
timable, eternal possessions of the soul. With all
such expositors and expositions I take issue and
challenge refutation on either rational or scriptural
grounds, re-affirming with ever-increasing assurance
my main proposition that it is tJie Cardinal Object,
meaning, purpose, end of the Christian Church, as
it was of the mission of Jesus, to save men, here
and now, in this world and in all coming worlds,
from sin, from the power of evil ; or, on the posi-
tive side, to train them to and to build them up
in Christlikeness of spirit, conduct, and character
through a corresponding Christlikeness of faith,
hope, and love ; this the means, that the great,
glorious, incomparable end.

In the work of promoting or attaining that end,
ever obligatory on the church as its primal, funda-
mental concern, Jesus was the God-given Examplar
and Forerunner. His faith in all the essentials of
pure religion was perfect ; as was also his conscien-
tiousness, his humility, his forbearance, his mercy,
his unselfishness, his benevolence, his impartiality;
in short, his unwavering, loyal, love toward God,
righteousness, truth, and all mankind. Such being
the case, is it for his church to ignore or under-
estimate all those high-born qualities, attributes, as
they are, not only of Christ's pre-eminent character
but of the character of God, constituting as they

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 147

do in their ultimate and infinite expression the
perfections of Deity ? Is it for Christ's church to
train those under its tuition or allow them with
its sanction and approval to be indifferent to the
things that the Master in His teachings and life
made of vital inportance, to forget or ignore the
fundamentals of his religion, to be unscrupulous,
proud, haughty, oppressive, revengeful, warlike, or
unchaste, covetous, greedy of gain, ambitious of
worldly greatness and display, slaves of capricious
custom and devotees of popular though oftentimes
wicked, demoralizing fashions ? When we look at
the great majority of those who have grown up
under the eaves of the sanctuary, who have listened
to the preaching of the ministers of the nominal
church of Christ and observed many or all of its
various prescribed forms, and find them little or no
better than the outside skeptic or worldling who
takes no stock in and pays no heed to any such
things but rather despises them ; find them no
more just, upright, trustworthy, honorable, kind,
charitable, merciful, forgiving, do not the results
prove that such a church is more or less false to
its trust, treasonable towards its Founder and
Leader, corrupt in character or in administration,
or at best either sadly untrue to what ought to be
sacredly regarded as the first great, absolutely-
essential object of its existence, or sadly incom-
petent in its efforts to attain that object ? How
poorly will many branches of the nominal Christian
church of the past sixteen hundred years bear
such a test as I have suggested ! How poorly too

148 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

many of the churches of the present day, orthodox
or heterodox, conservative or liberal! *' 'Tis true,
'tis pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true."

Another class of persons alluded to are disposed
to admit the general propriety and soundness of
my position and of my affirmation on this point
but see no need of its being formally incorporated
in a church platform or assented to as a distinct
article of faith. It were better, such think, to take
the matter for granted and assume that it is under-
stood by all concerned. But the fact is it is not
understood, certainly not practically if it be theo-
retically ; and it is a matter of too vital importance
to be left to such equivocal, uncertain use — to
such neglect and forgetfulness as often exist. The
history of the church from the beginning of its
decadence to the present day shows, beyond all
question or cavil, that only a lean, fragmentary
minority of its actual members have themselves
understood what the prime object of the church is
and tried to live in accordance therewith. Having
been left unexpressed it lost the prominence which
properly belonged to it and at an early day the
vast majority of confessors became either utterly
ignorant of it or treated it with contempt. Look
at the multitudinous sects or denominations of
Christendom and see what is the state of things
in this respect. With the exception of a few small
unpopular ones it will found that they have no
fixed landmarks, discipline, or testimony for the
restraint of their members against war, capital
punishment, compulsory litigation, political ambition

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 149

and intrigue, exorbitant wealth, financial speculation,
sumptuous indulgence, artificial distinction, social
domination, or any other anti-Christlike habit or
custom of the world's civilization. These things
are each and all deemed allowable for professed
followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, only in
theory they must not be abused. Their abuses are
often eloquently deprecated and denounced but they
continue nevertheless. For the reason that the
things named are contrary to the laws of eternal
order as they are to the example and teaching of
Christ and tend naturally and inevitably to excess
and mischief. Christ was pre-eminently humane,
compassionate, and tender in respect to human life
and welfare, even towards his enemies, and solemnly
commands his disciples to be like him in this regard.
But it is not in the nature of the customs and
practices mentioned to produce this result but the
opposite. They naturally and inevitably breed
pride, imperiousness, resentment, vengeance, and
stern disregard of human suffering. Christ was
free from the spirit of worldly ambition, greed of
gain, high position, social domination, and enjoined
it upon those who bore his name to live as brethren
not as masters, lording it over one another, declar-
ing that under his rule '*he who would be greatest
among them should be servant of all." This can
not be where there is striving and planning to gain
official distinction, power and emolument, to acquire
riches by financial craft and adventure, to pamper
one's self and family with luxury, self indulgence,
and excess of food, clothing, equipage, and dwelling-

150 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

houses, provoking the envy and hate of those
around them ; or where there is tireless effort to rise
to social superiority, lording it over workmen, serv-
ants, and less fortunate fellow-beings, and fattening
on the homage of fawning parasites and sycophan-
tic admirers. These various positions and attitudes
are not Christlike, nor are they productive of
Christlike fruits in those assuming them or in
others, and no sophistry can make them otherwise
than inimical and perversive of the spirit of Christ's
religion.

And yet they prevail to a large extent in nearly
every branch of the existing church, rendering its
members so much like unbaptized, unregenerate
worldlings that they can hardly be distinguished
from them save only by a certain observance of
religious rites, an outward profession of faith, a
conventional pietism, or a sanctimonious air which
are often mistaken for the graces and powers of
the Christian life. The secret of this delusion is
that moral Christlikeness is not regarded or felt
to be, in any profound, vital sense, a matter of
supreme moment in itself considered, or that it is
the primal, peremptory object of the church to train,
nurture, develop its members, dependents, and pupils
of every name and degree to the possession and
illustration of Christlikeness in their constant walk
and conversation, in their habitual spirit, conduct,
and character.^

I hardly deem it necessary to quote passages
from the New Testament to prove the proposition
now in question. And yet it may not be out of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 151

place to present a few as the sample of a great
multitude of a similar import. First I offer some
of Christ's own words, to wit : "I am the way, the
truth and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father
but by me." — JoJm xiv. 6. " If any man will come
after me let him take up his cross and follow me." —
Luke ix. 23. "The disciple is not above his
master; but every one that is perfect shall be as
his master." — lb. vi. 40. "Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in
heart." — Matt. xi. 29. "Whoever will be great
among you let him be your minister; and whosoever
will be chief among you let him be your servant ;
Even as the Son of man came not to be minis-
tered unto but to minister and to give his life a
ransom for many." — lb xx. 26-28. "I am the
vine, ye are the branches ; He that abideth in me
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit." — John xv. 5, What do these passages teach
but the duty of conformity to Christ ; of Christlike-
ness of spirit, conduct, and character.

What now is the Apostles' testimony on the
same point ? Note the following : " If any man
have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." —
Rom. viii. 9. " Ye are the body of Christ and
members in particular." — i Cor. xii. 27. "As
many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ." — Ga/. in. 27. "Let this mind
be in you that was in Christ Jesus." — P/ii/. ii. 5.
" Hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also
suffered for us leaving us an example that ye
should follow his steps." — i Pet. ii. 21. "He that

152 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

saith he abideth in him, ought also to walk even
as he walked." — i John ii. 6. " Herein we per-
ceive the love because he laid down his life for us ;
and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren." — lb. iii. i6. "'Till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ." — Ephs.
iv. 13. Let these citations suffice. Can any intelfi-
gent person doubt that it was the motive and
purpose of the Master to reproduce as far as possi-
ble his own moral and spiritual image in the souls
of his disciples .^ Or that to do the same work, to
make men Christlike in spirit, character, and life*
is the first essential, cardinal end and aim of the
true Christian Church ?

Object 2. "To propagate the true, primitive reli-
gion of Christ by all reasonably available means as
far and wide as possible ; to convert the wayward
and sinful from darkness to light and from iniquity
to righteousness, ever seeking as its ultimate aim, in
this particular, the regeneration, holiness, and hap-
piness of the entire human race." The next thing
for the Christian Church to do, after putting itself in
order internally, according to the Gospel standard,
is to enter upon and prosecute with all diligence
and zeal, its external work. The world which Christ
came to save lieth in ignorance, folly, error, and
wickedness. It is to be converted ; converted to
him, to his religion, and to that order of life in
true righteousness which he exemplified. His com-
mand was, "Go ye into all the world and preach

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 163

the Gospel to every creature." The duty thus
enjoined was imposed to begin with upon his
earliest Apostles and through them as instruments
in founding the church it passed over to that body
and thence to all the churches of Christendom.
And those that are in any way loyal to their
acknowledged leader accept the duty and seek to
be faithful to the trust thus confided to them.
And this duty is to be performed and this trust
to be discharged through the ministry established
by the church for the proclamation of Christ's word
of truth and through its entire membership by a
living example of Christlikeness before the world.
The work involved cannot be done in a day or in
an age, but the responsiblity of attending to it is
no less weighty and imperative on that account.
It is a continuous, progressive work, and should
not be permitted to lag or languish by the indo-
lence or treachery of those entrusted with it. They
should be on the alert at all times ; they should
be organized and equipped to carry it forward as
fast and as far as possible wherever it is practica-
ble ; not forgetting for a moment the obligation
resting upon them in this regard as disciples of
him whom God raised up and sent into the world
that through him the world might be enlightened,
enfranchised, saved. To this end Christ labored
when he was upon the earth, and, going hence,
left the task for his church to take up and carry
through to a glorious consummation, as the second
cardinal object for which it was instituted and
given a place in the providential order of the

154 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

world. As I have already suggested there are
two ways by which this duty is to be discharged,
by which the Christian religion is to be propagated,
by which the church is to extend the influence
and dominion of the Gospel to the ends of the
earth, — by word and by deed\ by the proclamation
of the truth and by a living exemplification of the
truth. And these two must be kept prominently
in view and made to operate harmoniously with
each other or the object to be attained will fail of
realization to a proportionate extent. Preaching
and practice must correspond and so supplement
and aid each other or the contemplated and desired
result will not be secured but seriously jeopardized.
I present a few sample testimonies from the
sacred records for the purpose of showing that
what I have declared to be a cardinal object of
the Christian church was not only recognized as such
by its early ministers but was a fundamental ele-
ment of Christianity itself. And also to show that
from the beginning that object was to be promoted
and finally secured in the twofold way I have indi-
cated— by word and deed, by the promulgation of
Christian truth and by the power of example on
the part of those by whom that truth had been
received and in whom it had found incarnation.
It was in the very nature of the religion of Christ
to be a missionary religion ; its vital spirit prompted
continually to the extension of its influence and the
enlargement of its empire among men, and the posi-
tive teachings of Jesus and of his evangelists and
apostles were to the same effect, as can be easily

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 165

seen. " God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through him might
be saved." — /o/m iii. i6, 17. "The bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life to the world." — Id. vi. 33. "Ye are the salt
of the earth ; but if the salt have lost its savor
wherewith shall it be salted ? It is thenceforth
good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden
under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel
but on a candle-stick, and it giveth light to all
that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." —
MatL V. 13-16. "Go ye and teach all nations
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to
observe all things that I have commanded you." —
Id. xxviii. 19, 20. " I have set thee to be a light
to the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salvation to
the ends of the earth." — Ac^s xiii. 47. " Christ sent
me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel." —
I Co7^. i. 17. "Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe
is unto me if I preach not the Gospel." " Though
I be free from all men, yet have I made myself
servant to all that I might gain the more." — II?. ix.
16, 19. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy' nation, a peculiar people ; that

156 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ye should show forth the praises of him who hath
•called you out of darkness into his marvelous
Jight." ** Having your conversation honest among
the Gentiles ; that whereas they speak against you
as evil-doers, they may, by your good works which
they shall behold, glorify God in the day of
visitation." — i Pet. ii. 9, 12. "I exhort therefore
that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks, be made for all men, * * *
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty: For this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who
will have all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth." — i Tim. ii. 1-4. "All
things are of God who hath reconciled us to him-
self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation, to wit: that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself." — 2 Cor.
V. 18, 19.

These and all similar passages, of which there
are many scattered here and there through the
New Testament, prove beyond all question the
expansive and world-embracing nature of the reli-
gion of Christ and indicate the duty which it
imposes upon his disciples, individually and in
their church relations, of extending to the utmost
its influence and power for good among men, and
of helping in the work of bringing the whole world,
all classes and conditions of men, in all lands and
beneath all skies, under its holy and beneficent
sway. To promote this sublime result by the
wisest and most effective means must certainly be

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 15T

one of the cardinal objects of a true Christian
church.

So far as preaching is concerned, or the promul-
gating Christianity by the spoken word, all sections
of the nominal church have been diligent and zeal-
ous enough, so far as regards their own respective
theories and creeds ; often, indeed, perverting the
work of converting men to Christ and bringing
them to the love and practice of righteousness
into mere proselytism to a sect or party, often
to a very narrow and bigoted one; one in which
the belief or confession of certain dogmatic assump-
tions, or the observance of certain prescribed rites,
or the pronouncing of some conventional shibbo-
leth was made the chief thing — a matter of more
importance manward and of surer acceptance God-
ward than obedience to the Christian law in the
leading of a pure, noble. Christlike life. And not
infrequently when the preaching has been compara-
tively and on the whole fairly good and for the
most part above reproach, there has been lamenta-
ble failure in the matter of applying the truth
proclaimed to daily conduct, to life in its various
relations, and especially to the habits, practices,
customs of general society and to the laws, institu-
tions, and established policies of organized civil
government; of towns, cities, provinces, states, and
nations. The rebuke of the Master has been justi-
fied again and again in the history of the church ;
nay, has been of almost constant applicability,
"Why call ye me Lord, Lord"; why claim to be
under my leadership and tuition, •' and yet do not

168 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

the things I say?" The worldling looks upon the
lives and characters of nominal disciples of Christ
and finds them so much like those of the so-called
unregenerate, the non-professing masses, that he
either comes to despise religion and all profession
of religion, or, what is worse, accepts them formally,
without inward renewal or moral transformation, for
the sake of some personal advantage or possibly
through a superstitious belief that thereby he will
be insured salvation in a future state of being,
without renouncing any of the sordid, selfish ambi-
tions, projects, pleasures, indulgences, however
unchristlike, of the present state. In either case
the real object of the church is lost sight of and
it is made to minister to human degradation and woe,
and so to hinder the evangelization of the world
instead of hastening it onward to its final comple-
tion. Hence the necessity of giving that object
due prominence and assigning to it the importance
which the nature of the case and the truth of
Christianity demand.

DISCOURSE X.

EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE OF CAB DIN AL
OBJECTS CONCLUDED.

"There should be no schism in the body; but the mem-
bers should have the same care one for another. And
whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ;
or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with
it." — I Cor. xii. 25, 26.

" Be not conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." —
Rom. xii. 2.

Resuming the general subject under considera-
tion in my last discourse, to wit: The Cardinal
Objects of the true Christian Church, I take up
the next in order.

Object 3. " To insure to all its orderly mem-
bers, dependents, and attached probationers, the
comforts and necessaries of life, physical, intellect-
ual, moral, social, and religious, without slavish and
humiliating dependence on the part of any one
upon the outside world." Orderly members,
dependents, etc., of the church are those who, of
themselves or through their parents or guardians,
are voluntarily connected with the body in the
relations indicated and are therefore supposed to

160 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

be properly subject to its teachings, requirements,
regulations, and generally established discipline,
duly provided for the edification and governance
of all concerned. If any refuse to be thus subject
and assume an attitude of resistance to what is
regarded as wholesome order, the obligation to
care for such and furnish them with the means
of a comfortable subsistence in the particulars
indicated does not exist. They are out of place
and should be allowed to go to their own company
and find there all real wants supplied.

But what may be included in the catalogue of
life's comforts and necessaries in the several depart-
ments specified ? A good home, food, clothing,
shelter, care in sickness or infirmity, employment,
education, moral training, religious culture, need-
ful recreation, elevating companionship, salutary
environment ; whatever is requisite to the proper
development of one's native capacities, to the
supply of all his real needs, to the rendering of
him useful, respectable, happy. This includes
nothing for extravagant habits, for mere self-indul-
gence, for fashionable display, for demoralizing
pleasure or anything of a similar nature. Slavish,
humiliating dependence upon the outside world is
that involving a surrender of personal independence,
of the rights of conscience, or of any of the quali-
ties and prerogatives of a manly or womanly char-
acter; thus not only degrading the subject but at
the same time allowing the church to shirk some
of its most sacred and vital responsibilities. It is
that which is attended by some violation of princi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 161

pie, by conforming to false standards of morality,
by catering to the vicious tastes and prejudices
of the carnally minded, by consenting to popular
abuses and evils, by neglecting to maintain an open
testimony by word and deed against error, falsehood,
iniquity of every sort, or in favor of what is true,
right, good, as between man and man or as between
man and God. It is that in which the church or
any person representing it does not pay a full
equivalent for benefits received, either from private
individuals, charitable institutions, municipal, state,
and national governments, or from any other source
whatsoever.

Now in respect to this third declared object for
which the Christian church exists, we find most
of the larger and many of the smaller sections of
Christendom deplorably delinquent. They are so
conformed to this world in the common moralities,
and so involved in the habits, practices, and fash-
ions of general society and in the administration
of political affairs, that they virtually ignore or
defy the claims of the Gospel as of supreme validity
and authority never to be overruled or remanded
to a subordinate place in the conduct of life. They
acquire and use property, trade and manage busi-
ness, arrange educational and governmental inter-
ests, and conduct all secular concerns after the
manner of this worl'd and not according to the
spirit and law of Christ. In their relations to
the unfortunate, suffering, poor, and needy of their
membership, they often turn them over to the
unregenerate for care, sustenance, and comfort, or

162 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

huddle them together in charitable institutions
where they rarely if ever come in contact with
their fellow-associates in the church, and so lose
much of that personal intercourse, interest, and sym-
pathy, which contribute so largely to human welfare
and happiness ; while the more prosperous and suc-
cessful of their number luxuriate and revel in
lavish expenditure and demoralizing self-indulgence.
Worse than this, these so-called upper classes,
masquerading as politicians, speculators, landlords,
warriors, impose increasing burdens upon those of
humbler rank in life, the toiling millions of the
world, multiply beggars, paupers, orphans, widows,
objects of pity and charity, the sorrowful victims
of human selfishness, injustice, and violence, and
thus increase the misery of mankind. Instead of
all this, the better-conditioned of the church, if
governed by the law of Christ, would use whatever
superiority they might possess in any direction for
the benefit of their less fortunate brethren, by
providing remunerative employment for them, means
of education and self-improvement, and a multitude
of opportunities and privileges, with accompanying
inducements to improve them, whereby ignorance,
poverty, want, and woe would be greatly diminished
if not altogether eliminated from the life and history
of the church. It is time that these and other
things of a like nature were taken into considera-
tion and deemed of practical account by all who
make profession of allegiance to Christ. It is
time that a great reformation was begun in this
regard.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 163

But let me specify some of the means to be
employed by which the particular object of the
Christian church now in debate may be in good
degree realized, or, at least, put in the way of
realization at no distant day.

1. I observe in the first place that by a faithful
discharge of the duty implied in the declared first
object of a Christian church, the one now in dis-
cussion would be in large measure attained. Were
the members and collateral subjects of the church
trained sedulously to Christlikeness, they would be
to a large extent insured *'the comforts and neces-
saries of life," and •' relieved from degrading depend-
ence on the outside world." So trained they would
be industrious, frugal, temperate, self-supporting,
as well as virtuous and devout. They would be
saved from those habits and courses of conduct
which are the fruitful sources of the evils and suf-
ferings now so prevalent in general society; the
evils and sufferings attendant upon ignorance, folly,
self-indulgence, vice, and crime. Idlers, spendthrifts,
dissolutes, debauchees, profligates of every sort,
would not be bred under such a regimen and the
sources of supply for all legitimate human need
would be proportionally increased and replenished.
The margin left for special charity would be greatly
diminished.

2. By the faithful discharge of the same duty
there would grow up in the church no extortioners,
speculators, gamblers, oppressive landlords or man-
agers of industry, pampered drones, mammonites,
or other self-seeking tacticians, to take advantage

164 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of the unsuspecting, to beguile the innocent, to
outwit the simple-minded, to clutch the hard-earned
fruits of honest toil from the hand of the toiler, or
by any other means equally reprehensible obtain
the rewards of other's productive energy and thus
increase pauperism, vassalage, and the number of
underlings and pensioners where only equality and
brotherhood should prevail and every one have
enough and to spare. Under such tuition superior
talent, enterprise, wealth, would be sacredly devoted
to the general welfare and prosperity, to the eleva-
tion of the weaker and less fortunate, to the pro-
vision of means and opportunities of education and
self-help, to social improvements and public benefits,
to benevolent institutions and humanitary causes,
and to the Christianization of the world. So would
much poverty and dependence be provided against,
and the third great object of the church be effec-
tively promoted.

3. But with all these preventives and provisions,
special benevolences and charities will sometimes
be needed, and must in loyalty to Christ be fur-
nished. Through the uncontrollable forces of
nature, human weakness, ignorance, and folly, and
the wickedness and false ambition of men in high
and commanding positions, will misfortune and
misery come, even to the most innocent and worthy.
Hurricanes, floods, fires, famine, pestilence, ill-health,
persecution, war, will sometimes prevail, sweeping
away hard-earned gains, home, means of self-sub-
sistence, productive ability, and other sources of
comfort and supply, rendering one for the time

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 165

being, if not permanently, dependent upon others
for the satisfaction of all material needs and possi
bly of higher needs as well. The true church will
make ample provision for such emergencies, which
are liable to occur at any moment and perhaps
where least expected. Systematic methods of relief
by established institutions and official agents charged
with the duty of acting promptly in needed cases
must be made a part of the church equipment, to
be supplemented, when required to meet special
demands, by willing and cheerful personal service
and freely-given pecuniary contributions, so that it
may be said as was said of the church at the day of
Pentecost, *' Neither was there any among them
that lacked." Inattention to these things by reason
of thoughtlessness, cupidity, or want of sympathy
and fellow-feeling for those who need and suffer,
is utterly inexcusable in a body calling itself a
Christian church, and brands it false to its high
profession, and oblivious to one of the essential
cardinal objects for which the church was instituted
or by which it is to prove itself worthy a place in
the divine plan for the redemption of the world.

Will it be said that my views of the duty of
the church in the matter under consideration are
extreme and unreasonable ? But are they not
grounded in the very nature of Christianity and
justified by the New Testament record of what
transpired in the beginning ? Look at Jesus, the
great Head of the church and the model of human
character and conduct. From the meagre data
given us of his common life among men we may

166 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

warrantably infer that his parents belonged to the
middle class of Jewish society and were dependent
upon their productive labor and wise economy for
their daily bread, that he was trained to self sustain-
ing industry as the son of a carpenter and to simple
frugal habits of personal and domestic concern,
and that he shared and profited by the educational
advantages accorded in his day to children and
youth of the common people. For ten years, more
or less, he lived as became one of his rank and
calling. That he accumulated some property may
be presumed from Paul's words, ''Though he was
rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye
through his poverty might be made rich." Though
this statement had a spiritual significance as includ-
ing his entire benevolence and self-sacrifice it quite
likely had its correspondence in the facts of his
common life ; the greater including the less. More-
over, when Jesus entered upon his ministry and
looked about him for helpers in executing the
work given him to do, he selected men of the same
class with himself, accustomed to the same general
regimen in respects to home training, education,
etc. They left their ordinary pursuits to follow
him and promulgate his gospel, multiplying con-
verts as the fruit of their labors All together.
Master, Apostles, believers of various grade, con-
tributed of their pecuniary means to the common
treasury, of which Judas seems to have had charge,
for the supply of the common necessities, the
advancement of the cause in which they were
engaged, and the relief of the poor.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 167

Thus it was while Christ was yet upon the
earth. After he passed into heaven, when the great
Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place
as recorded in the second, third, and fourth chap-
ters of the book of Acts, there was a correspond-
ing outpouring of temporal goods to insure the
necessaries and comforts of life to all of the grow-
ing household of faith. "And the multitude of
them that believed were of one heart and of one
soul ; neither said any of them that aught of the
things that he possessed was his own ; but they
had all things common." "Neither was there any
among them that lacked ; for as many as were
possessed of lands or houses sold them and
brought the prices of things that were sold, and
laid them at the Apostles' feet ; and distribution
was made to every man according as he had
need." — AcU. iv. 32, 34, 35. Not long after a
board of seven responsible persons, called deacons,
was constituted to superintend the disposal of these
funds in a regular, systematic, judicious manner, so
that no ohe should be left to suffer or have cause
of complaint.

Now while the precise form which the noble
generosity and fraternal helpfulness of the primi-
tive church took on at the outset may not be
and is not deemed obligatory upon those who
assume to be disciples of the same Master in sub-
sequent times, yet beyond all doubt the spirit which
prompted that form and secured the beneficent
results of it is forever obligatory and inviolable,
and clearly indicates the duty of all churches and

168 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of all church members in all periods of human
history. It is the spirit of the Master, the spirit
of Christianity, and if ignored, neglected, or set
at defiance, the Master himself is dishonored in
the house of His pretended friends and Christianity
is discredited and robbed of its crowning glory.
Let the church as it now is be duly advised and
admonished in regard to this matter, and wherein
it is at fault concerning it may it be called back to
its duty and prove itself a worthy representative
of the first body of believers and its immediate
successor, the church of the apostolic age. So
shall Christ be duly exalted, the church be purified,
and God be glorified.

Object 4. "To exemplify within the pale of its
own membership a model form of personal and
social life in advance of existing civilization, as a
type and harbinger of the divine order of human
society that is to be, when men, under the reign
of Christ, shall dwell together in brotherhood and
peace." Some will deny, others doubt, and many
contemn this statement, as either untrue, incredi-
ble, or greatly exaggerated. In view of the pre-
vailing sentiment of the church and of general
society, as it now is and has been for many centu-
ries, this is not to. be wondered at. But I shall
not be deterred thereby from defending my own
profound conviction that the position assumed is
well taken. Let me explain and define the mean-
ing of my proposition.

What the true church is to exemplify in the
particulars named is to be done ivithin its own

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 169

pale, among those who profess to follow Christ,
not among outsiders, who acknowledge no alle-
giance to him. It may be admitted that members
of the church are to illustrate a high order of per-
sonal life but are in no wise bound to show forth
a corresponding type of social life, except in a very
narrow, exclusive sense ; not as separate from and
radically above the existing social state. But I
insist upon this point as well as the other, to wit :
that it is a cardinal object of the true church to
exemplify a model form of associated life, — not a
perfect order of society at once but a radically
better one than now exists, preparing the way and
leading to the divine society of the future ; a form
or order that can and will be imitated in its more
important aspects by sundry voluntary associations,
and approximately by general civil society, as its
excellences come to be understood and appreciated.
Thus it will keep in advance of the world's
so-called civilization, constantly stimulating and
elevating it, and working at length its thorough
Christianization.

If this was not the designed object of the
church in this particular, what was it .^^ Was it to
stand in no other relation to society at large than
that of a modifying componeni element of it, one
of its constituent parts, in no wise separate from
and exalted above it t Was it to be a follower in
the march of human progress, or a simple sharer
of the benefits thereof, or a co-ordinate agency
operating in common with others to produce it }
On either of these suppositions the church is in

170 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

no proper sense a divinely appointed instrumental-
ity for the redemption of the world, and Chris-
tianity is no longer worthy of reverence and love
as the power of God unto human salvation. Then
society is its own saviour and civilization is itself
of supreme moral importance, to which the church
and Christianity are but tributary benefactors.
Then the church has no right to set up a stand-
ard of righteousness, personal or social, even for
its own adherents, absolutely higher than that of
existing society to which it is confessedly subordi-
nate ; and certainly none which shall require its
subjects, on account of conscientious scruples, not
to participate in long-established and popular social
customs and practices, or in governments founded
upon the will of the majority, however idolatrous,
oppressive, warlike they may be. Its proper mission
is to float upon the tide of the world's prevailing
life, or, at most and best, to modulate its flow by
occasional suggestion or general good influence
which has, however, no inherent authority or con-
trolling power. And Christianity, which the church
is supposed to represent, is robbed of its supremacy
in the realm of morals and religion, and is to be
counted as but one out of many forces that make for
righteousness and the coming in of the kingdom
of heaven. It may be, according to some theologies,
of intrinsic and imperishable value as a means of
preparing souls for the next world, but is of sub-
ordinate worth as an instrumentality for enlighten-
ing, reforming, saving them in the present one.
Under this supposed view of the relation of Chris-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 171

tianity and the church to social life and to civil
government, which seems to be practically the
common view, it is not strange that many who
have lost all dread of divine vengeance after death
come to hold both in derision and scornfully claim
that they have "played out," and that science,
literature, politics, and war are after all the sources
whence must come the progress of the race and
the final reign of order, equity, brotherhood, har-
mony. Alas, that the church in its dominant sec-
tions should give cause for such animadversion
and sneering satire. For such is the case, in that
it has been so long busy in making professedly
Christian persecutors, warriors, and war-chaplains,
lordlings, courtiers, mammonites, politicians, world-
lings of a manifold variety, instead of bringing its
members to lead a Christlike life and to illustrate
a Christianized form of society among themselves
and before an unregenerate world.

The common sense of intelligent people ought
to show them that if the distinctive righteousness
set forth in the New Testament has any radical
excellence it must be not only an individual right-
eousness but a social righteousness also, tn be
taught and exemplified by the church as an organ-
ized body of Christian disciples. The notion that
Christians as individuals acting in the customary
affairs of private life are to keep the two great
commandments, to observe the golden rule and all
those precepts which solemnly enjoin humility,
forbearance, kindness, forgiveness of injuries, and
love of enemies as well as friends, while, as asso-

172 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ciates in business and civil affairs, as constituents,
representatives, and managers of organized society
they may be guilty of pride, selfishness, injustice,
hatred, and revenge, and commit the darkest deeds
of violence, cruelty, oppression, and bloodshed, in
the name of church or state, of humanity or civili-
zation, is as preposterous and absurd as it is
abominable. What is the Christian church but a
body of persons voluntarily united under the
avowed leadership of Jesus Christ, not only to
profess and to promulgate his religion but to prac-
tice it in all the concerns and relations of life ?
Those persons claim to have been born again, to
to be new creatures in Christ, to be led by his
spirit, and to be the lights, guides, exemplars of
mankind. Shall they make this claim good ? Com-
mon sense and common honestly alike affirm that
they ought to do so or abandon it forever. The
early church made good this claim, if we can trust
history; and the church of the future will do the
same and do it more perfectly, if we can trust
prophecy.

That the Scriptures require, command, make
imperative, this practical application of Christian
ideas, principles, precepts, and the Christian spirit
to the practical affairs of life, to all human interests
and relations, without exception, modification or
limitation, is as certain and indisputable as that
they teach anything of a moral and spiritual nature ;
and to quote all the passages that plainly support
this view would be to transfer to these pages most
■of the prescriptive lessons of the four Gospels, the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 17S

Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles following;
a task from which I will be excused, referring my
readers -in lieu thereof to the original sources of
knowledge on this point where they will find my
affirmation concerning this matter unequivocally
attested and substantiated. I pass therefore to —
Object 5. ** To demonstrate, by practical right-
eousness in all human relations and affairs, the
transcendent excellence of pure Christianity over
all religions, philosophies, and moral systems known
to men, and thus continually approximate the per-
fect realization of the Master's prayer: 'Thy king-
dom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.'" This may be regarded as a summary of
all the previously named objects of the Christian
church, with a distinct recognition of the grand
result of which they are prophetic, to which they
are tributary, and in which they find complete and
glorious fulfillment. This attainment of a divine
kingdom on earth, and of the actual supremacy of
the divine will in the pres.ent state of existence,
detracts nothing from the revealed glory of immor-
tal life and blessedness in heaven. It is in happy
accord with it — a constituent part of that sub-
limely beneficent plan of universal holiness and
happiness which the infinite Wisdom and Love
designed to work out under his beneficent rule
by the mediatorial reign of Jesus Christ ; begun
indeed in time and finding a partial realization
on this world's arena, but reaching its ultimate in
other and higher realms of being, where imper-
fection shall rise into perfection, and where the
mortal shall put on immortality.

174 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Christ declared himself to be the light of the
world. He also declared his disciples, as a body
of believers in him, to be, in a subordinate sense,
the same. But they were so only as they exem-
plified the truth and righteousness which he exem-
plified. He taught his followers to pray, "Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven," and he also, by implication, taught
them to live and act accordingly. They were not
to pray that earth might be a heaven of love,
unity, concord, happiness, and then so conduct
themselves as to render it a hell ; a place of dis-
cord, confusion, wrath, and woe. Nor, under pre-
text of getting into heaven hereafter, were they
to neglect laboring to make a heaven here; much
less approve, sanction, and participate in those
things — selfishness, oppression, covetousness, licen-
tiousness, violence, persecution, bloodshed, and
war — which constitute the essential elements and
forces of inferno. Rather did he teach that in
order to secure a heaven hereafter one must
cherish a heavenly spirit here, and do what he
may to build up a kingdom of heaven on the
earth. The more a religion is worth for bettering
this world, the more is it worth for gaining bless-
edness in the world to come.

Now, whether the Christian religion is superior
to its many rivals or competitors; better than any
other religion, than any form of philosophy, than
any literary, scientific, or ethical system, than any
political or civil expedients or modes of govern-
ment, or not, is to be determined by its fruits ; by

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 175

its natural, legitimate effect upon the characters
and lives of its adherents, by the moral and spir-
itual attainment of those who have put them-
selves most completely under its guidance and
inspiration. That there is good in many other
religions, philosophies, etc., I do not deny ; that
they have all had noble and praiseworthy expo-
nents or disciples, I cheerfully allow ; that they
have exerted a beneficent and salutary influence
upon the world of mankind, I will not question.
But that Christianity excels them each and all in
these particulars, I claim, and deem myself able
to make the claim good. Granting that much
mischief has been done in the world by a cor-
rupted and perverted Christianity ; granting that
men in vast multitudes, professing to be followers
of Jesus, have not only violated the dictates of
common morality, but been sometimes monsters
of iniquity ; granting that the nominal Christian
church has often sanctioned and sanctified popular
evils and abominations, and stood in the way of
reform and progress ; yet do I afifirm, without fear
of refutation, that the religion of Christ is par
excellence *' the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek." The nature of that religion,
its genius, its fundamental principles, its vital
spirit, are a guaranty of most purifying and enno-
bling results, if allowed controlling sway, in life
and character, in social transformations, in the
progress of mankind. Moreover, Christ was the
personification of his religion. In him^ we see its

176 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

perfect fruits, and what can be better, nobler,
diviner? And all down through the Christian
centuries the more men and women have lived by
the Gospel, or put the Gospel into their lives,
the more like Jesus have they become, the more
fully have they illustrated all the powers and
graces of a manly and womanly character, the
more completely have they been imaged after the
all-perfect God. The more, too, have such men and
women been interested and active in the welfare and
happiness of their fellowmen, and in those human-
itary, beneficent, and progressive causes and move-
ments which are calculated to elevate, enlighten,
regenerate, and save the sinful and sorrowing of
the world. And, furthermore, the church, the
so-called Christian church, notwithstanding its apos-
tasy and many shortcomings, has been the one
great agency by which immorality and wickedness
have been held in check and virtue and godliness
promoted ; by which the divine purpose has been
carried forward toward its millennial fulfillment.
If such important, blessed results can be accom-
plished by a demoralized, corrupt church, entering
but partially into the mind and work of Christ,
what might not be done in the same direction and
behalf for man's redemption and God's glory by a
thoroughly illumined, faithful, consecrated, inspired
one ? Such an one as in some not far distant
day, I trust, shall, by a radical regeneration, have
a place in the world. Such a church will prove
the soundness of my view in declaring the fifth
grand object of a true body of Christ ; will dem-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 177

onstrate, by practical righteousness in all human
concerns, the superiority of pure Christianity to
all other religions, philosophies, and moral systems,
and continually approximate the realization of the
divine purpose in sending Jesus into the world.

I bring this discourse to a close, and with it
the discussion of the subject under consideration,
with a few pertinent observations. ( i ) That these
conclusions regarding the essential cardinal objects
of the true Christian church are alike worthy of
the loftiest aspirations of the human soul, hon-
orable to Jesus Christ, and glorifying to the Infi
nite Father. (2) That they are fully sanctioned
and attested by reason and Scripture. ( 3 ) That
any others radically contrary or inferior to them
would render the church worthy of reprehension,
if not of contempt. (4) That they have beea
too generally overlooked, ignored, or belittled, by
the mass of professing Christians for more than
fifteen hundred years. (5) That in the church of
the future they ought to be made specially prom-
inent as indispensable planks of the ecclesiastical
platform, and perpetually magnified and proclaimed
as elements of religious progress and stimulants
to Christian endeavor and fidelity.

Let no one who is persuaded of the validity
of these observations be misled by the thought
that the specified objects for which the church is
established can be sufficiently understood by infer-
ence or implication without solemn declaration,
affirmation, and proclamation, both in the stand-
ards of faith and in the formal acknowledo:ment

178 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

of confessors. And may the great Head of the
church guide, inspire, and strengthen his loyal sub-
jects to be faithful in this as in all other Chris-
tian duties, to the end that they may labor effect-
ively for his cause, and for the coming of his king-
dom of righteousness, and peace, and joy.

DISCOURSE XI.

EXPOSITION OF THEOLOGICAL FAITH. PART I.

" One God, the Father of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in you all." — Eph. iv. 6.

" Ye are come unto Mount Zion * * * and to an
innumerable company of angels, * * * and to the Spirits
of just men made perfect." — Heb. xii. 22. 23.

"Every one shall give account of himself to God." —
Rom. xiv, 12.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap." — Gal. vi. 7.

"He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his
feet." — I Cor. xv. 25.

Having considered at sufficient length in the
two preceding discourses what I have come to
regard as the predominating cardinal objects for
which the true Christian church exists, to be
recognized and acknowledged by all the faithful
followers of its great Founder and Leader, I now
proceed to an exposition of the several articles
or subdivisions of the second section of my pro-
pounded creed or platform, to wit :

II. Theological Faith of the True

Christian Church.

/. The Divine Moral Ordei' of iJie World.

( I.) "There is one and but one God, who is
self-existent, infinite, all-perfect ; an omni-present
Spirit, and not a corporeal, localized organism ;

180 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

permeating boundless space and duration, and man-
ifestable to finite intelligences at His own pleasure
as to time, place, manner, and extent."

This is the God whom Jesus designates as "The
Father," and of whom the Apostle Paul declares to
be "above all, and through all, and in you all,"
"in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
He is one, and only one. No form of plurality
must be ascribed to Him. Hence the popular
doctrine of the Trinity, however stated, is inad-
missible. He is self-existent, from eternity to
eternity, needing no creator or prior cause ; He
being the Great First Cause. He is all-sufficient
in Himself and absolutely independent. He is
above all fate, necessity, or other modes of exist-
ence— the inherent Origin, Force, Life, Intelli-
gence, Will, Wisdom, and Goodness of universal
being. He is infinite in all the attributes, prop-
erties, and qualities of His Deific nature ; in
extension, duration, and operation ; in power, wis-
dom, and love ; in everything that makes Him
God. No limitation whatever must be imputed
to Him, save only sin, error, or essential contra-
diction of His own intrinsic character or moral
order. He is all-perfect in His essential nature,
as he is also in the qualities and manifestations
of his intellectual and moral capability — perfect
in all conceivable respects. No fault or incom-
pleteness exists in Him ; in affection, thought,
will, purpose, act, or accomplishment.

He is a Spirit, the Spirit, all-pervading, all-em-
bracing, immanent in all things, throughout immen-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 181

sity ; without corporeal, organic form, incapable of
localization or exclusion from any soul, from any
part of the vast empire of being, except in an
accommodated or metaphorical sense. He is the
one vital force animating all worlds and all finite
natures. He has neither center nor circumfer-
ence. Whatever He is at one point of time or
space, He is at all points, ad infinitJLin. He can
manifest himself or not, wherever, whenever, and
to whomsoever He will, adapting His operations
to the needs of all subordinate creatures, from
the lowliest human soul on earth to the loftiest
archangel in heaven — from the simple meeting
of two or three in Christ's name in some humble
cottage, to the vast assemblage of celestial hosts
amid the splendors of paradise. But the sublimest
of these manifestations are not infinite, because
made to finite intelligences, and the finite cannot
apprehend infinity, but only such portions thereof
as its development renders it capable of. Every
part of the measureless immensity of being is
instinct with God's presence, and He reveals
Himself at each and every conceivable point as
He will ; in whom, through whom, and to whom
He will. This is more fully set forth in the next
article.

(2.) ** God possesses inherently all the attri-
butes of self-conscious mental and moral person-
ality throughout the whole vast sphere of His
omnipresence, and is communicable to and with
all ingenuous, receptive minds by His Holy Spirit
dwelling in and inspiring them. Hence, manifold

182 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

divine disclosures and revelations have been made
to men through the successive periods of human
history, in some measure to the race generally,
but specifically, and with marked demonstrations
of reality and power, to and through eminent per-
sonages or mediators, of whom Jesus of Nazareth
was chief."

These two articles, or declarations of faith — the
latter complementing the former — clearly avoid
and preclude certain great and pernicious errors
of both past and present theology, among which
I name the following : That God is a plurality
of persons ; that He is in any respect imperfect
or subject to the necessities of a finite nature;
that He is an organic body, dwelling chiefly, if not
exclusively, in some grand, central locality of the
universe, save as He journeys here and there on
some special mission about His vast dominion ;
that He is identical with the aggregate of entities
called Nature; that He is an unconscious plexus
of primal forces, laws, and principles, operating
with a blind infallibility ; that because He has no
bodily organism. He can have no mental and
moral personality; that if He have a mental and
moral personality, it must be a concentered and
localized one, not omni-present and omni-active
at every point of boundless time and space ; that
He is an incommunicable being, and cannot be
known or apprehended by finite natures except
through instinct, intuition, reason, secondary
causes or intermediate spiritual agencies ; that the
Holy Ghost is a distinct divine personality in

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 183

the Godhead, not a portion or manifestation of
the Infinite Spirit operating as He pleases for the
accomplishment of His great all-comprehending pur-
pose; that if divine communications, revelations,
and inspirations have been given to men they
must all be deemed equally clear, complete, and
authoritative, regardless of imperfect human con-
ditions ; and, finally, that because God was in
Christ Jesus to the highest, fullest pre-eminence
spiritually possible, He must have been in him
to infinity ; so that, outside of Christ, the Father
was not the same all-perfect God He had been
from an unbegun eternity, but was wholly incar-
nate in the Nazarene. These and kindred theolog-
ical fallacies are partly pseudo-Christian, partly
pseudo-philosophical, and partly pseudo-pantheistic,
but are all decidedly repugnant to pure Chris-
tianity. They are, therefore, to be excluded from
the platform of the renovated church of Christ.
And being so excluded, its members and adherents
are intrenched behind ramparts impregnable to the
assaults of the combined squadrons of bigotry,
credulity, superstition, scientific scepticism, and
irreligious philosophy. The two articles of faith,
as I have stated and expounded them, furnish all
needful security against such foes of truth and
righteousness ; against a host of sophistries jeop-
ardous to human good and happiness.

The substantial truth of the articles under notice
is assumed, where it is not explicitly taught,
throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures,
and is conclusively demonstrable from the funda-

184 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

mental principles of moral and spiritual philosophy
as interpreted by the light of reason. But it is
not so much my present purpose to establish by
logical processes the several articles and clauses of
my creed as it is to present them in definite and
apprehensible form, with such accompanying expla-
nation and elucidation as are necessary to have
them clearly and unmistakably understood by the
ingenuous, truth-loving, reverent mind and heart.
Having done this, as I believe, as far as I have
gone, I pass on to the next article.

(3.) "There is a vast realm of immaterial and
immortal existence insphering and comprehending
the present state of being, wherein dwelleth an
innumerable company of angels and spirits of
multiform grade and character, sometimes mani-
festable to kindred spirits dwelling in the flesh ;
and all the children of men from the beginning to
the end of time are, by nature and Providence,
destined through a resurrectional process to enter
that realm, and occupy a place there on higher
or low.er levels of attainment forevermore."

The terms in which this article is expressed
may be defined and explained thus : " Realm of
spiritual and immortal existence;" — one as real
as this on earth ; in which all substances, forms,
and entities, although real, are not "of the earth,
earthy," and subject to physical death, but impon-
derable and ethereal ; and where the inhabitants
in unbroken self-consciousness experience no mor-
tal ills or disabilities incident to the flesh. "An
innumerable company of angels and spirits;" —

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 185

countless hosts of intelligent beings. " Of multi-
form grade and character ; " — high and holy
angels, low and unholy spirits, souls of every
conceivable rank and stage of moral development,
associated according to the attractions of spiritual
affinity, and acting together in perfect freedom, yet
as subjects of divine law, order, and discipline.
"Sometimes, under favorable conditions, manifest-
able to other spirits dwelling in the flesh;" — as
declared through the Old and New Testaments,
the sacred books and traditions of all nations,
and attested by abundant evidence derived from
all ages of human history, not excepting our own.
"All the children of men from the bes^inning to
the end of time are destined * * * to enter that
realm ; " that is, are designed for and constitutionally
made capable of it. "Through a resurrectional
process;" — which separates the immaterial from
the material nature of man, the spirit from the
body, investing the former in an appropriate form
or presence clearly recognizable by the inward
vision, agreeably to the Apostle's saying, " there
is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body,"
and preparing it for the new conditions upon which
it enters, and for all subsequent progressive unfold-
ings. "To dwell therein on higher or lower levels
of attainment and progress," according to their
mental and moral fitness for the time being, and
their degree of development at any period of their
ever-continuing existence. [For more ample expo-
sition, Scriptural proofs, etc., See Discourses XII,
XIII, XV, XVI, Vol. I.]

186 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

This article avoids and precludes, as one may
readily see, the following prevalent mischievous
errors, to wit : That there is in man no con-
scious, intelligent human soul separable from the
physical organism ; that there is no conscious state
of existence for men after the event called death ;
that the resurrection spoken of in the Scriptures
must relate to, or at least include, the reanimation
of the fleshly frame, raised from the grave or gath-
ered from the elements by miraculous power and
translated to the unseen world, and there put in
possession of its former tenant — body and soul
being thus reunited for all eternity ; that the spir-
itual and immortal nature of man was first made
known and believed as a part of the Christian
revelation ; that existence in the future state is a
vague, indefinite, shadowy form of being, not one
of positive verities analogous to those of the pres-
ent life ; that no angels, spirits, or departed human
souls have ever manifested themselves to mankind,
but that such alleged occurrances are sheer myths,
fabrications, illusions, or subjective visions of abnor-
mal minds ; that if they ever do take place, those
recorded in the Bible are the only reliable ones,
all others being attributable to Satan, or to some
of his subordinates ; that there are only two dis-
tinctive conditions of being after death — one of
happiness, called heaven, the other of misery,
called hell, with no proper individual moral agency,
and no methods of enlightenment, reformation, and
progress whereby the unworthy and vile may
become pure and holy ; that the Supreme First

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 18T

Cause is so abstract and distant from finite natures
that He reaches them and actuates them, and gov-
erns them only through intermediate angels or
demigods, who carry on the affairs of the universe,
constituting the only deities whom mankind need
to recognize ; that Modern Spiritualism is a rad-
ically new religion, superseding all preceding ones,
even Christianity itself, and should receive the
encouragement, support, and homage of all man-
kind as God's last, divinest, most effective
instrumentality for bringing in His kingdom of
righteousness, peace, and joy. All these and many
similar errors, diverse, incongruous, heterogeneous
as they are, are disparagements, caricatures, denials,
or nullifications of Christianity, and, if allowed to
shape the belief or the policy of any proposed
church of the new Reformation, would fatally
embarrass, and ultimately destroy it. They are,,
therefore, to be provided against, discountenanced,^
and interdicted by all those who would aid in the
establishment of such a church.

(4.) *'A11 mankind are by nature moral agents,,
possessing greatly diversified degrees of original
capacity and acquired talent, and are, therefore,
proper subjects of moral law, invested with more
or less of personal responsibility, and amenable
alike to discipline, and to punishment or reward
in whatever state of being or stage of develop.
ment they may be."

This article of my creed needs little explana-
tion or elucidation. It simply affirms that human
beings are within certain limits capable of perceiv-

188 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ing- moral distinctions, of distinguishing between
right and wrong, good and evil, and of choosing
one or 'the other as the controlling element of
their lives. It does not mean that they are so in
infancy and early childhood, or when afflicted with
idiocy, insanity, or any other abnormal impairment
of their natural capacities, but only when in the
legitimate possession and exercise of their inherent
faculties and possibilities. Moreover, it does not
impose upon any one or all unlimited account-
ability, but admits of gradations thereof, based
upon capacity, knowledge, opportunity. Accord-
ing to these is one to be judged and treated as a
subject of moral law, of healthful discipline, of
praise or blame, and of punishment or reward.
And this is true in all worlds, in all states of
being, from eternity to eternity, now and for-
^vermore.

All this is taken for granted and acted upon
throughout the Old and New Testament. Every
precept, every commandment, every warning against
iniquity, every exhortation to virtue and piety, has
this for a foundation, and so evident is it to the
common moral sense and practical judgment of
men everywhere that it enters into and distin-
guishes every form of domestic, social, and civil
life. All jurisprudence, all disciplinary restraint,
all reproof and condemnation of guilt, and all
approval and commendation of fidelity and right-
eousness imply it. It, therefore, needs no verifi-
cation or defence at the bar of human intelligence
and judgment. I only pause to note a few quib-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 189

bles, sophisms, and fallacies which becloud and
bewilder some minds concerning it.

If this article, or the truth in it, be so obvious
and unquestionable, some one may say. Why make
so much account of it? Why insist upon it? Why
insert it in a statement of faith, and ask people
to subscribe to it? I reply, because it is a funda-
mental matter; because it is a foundation stone of .
personal character, of social order, of civil gov-
ernment, of all human prosperity and happiness;
and so a proper basis upon which to erect the true
Christian church. Because, also, there are abroad
in the world certain errors or falsities in relation
to the involved subject, sustained and promulgated
with such fascinating but specious sophistries that
they are calculated to attract, confuse, mislead,
and lure to evil ways the indifferent, unsuspect-
ing, thoughtless, and morally weak, working great
harm to them, and through them, to the world.
There is, for instance, the old doctrine of divine
foreordination, which made every thought and act
of every -man a fixed certainty of his existence ;
the doctrine of total depravity, which taught that
the entire human race were rendered incapable of
any good, and prone to evil till rescued by the
miraculous grace of God ; the more modern idea
that man is a creature of circumstances, and can in
no respect do otherwise than as outside forces compel
him ; that evil is not per se evil, but rudimental
good ; that " whatever is, is right," in inexcusable
perversion of Pope's words, thus confounding
all moral distinctions, and making nonsense and

190 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

folly of every command of God, of every pre-
cept of Chris.t, of every appeal of the champion
of truth and righteousness. None of these errors
could be endorsed or allowed to shape life and
character by any one without dangerous demoral-
ization. They naturally and inevitably stultify,
palsy, or vitiate that sense of responsibility which
is vital to the healthy development of the Chris-
tian character and to the healthy activity of the
Christian church. They are, therefore, to be inhib-
ited from the beginning by such an affirmation of
the opposite truths as are comprised in the article
under notice.

(5.) "There is a righteous and perfect divine
retribution for all moral agents wherever existing,
by which God, in the administration of His divine
government, causes every one, sooner or later, to
experience such enjoyment or suffering as is most
just, merciful, and salutary; always aiming therein
at the highest and most durable individual, social,
and universal good for both time and eternity."

The retribution here asserted consists of that
measure of gain or loss, of pleasure or pain, which
expresses the absolute right or wrong of every
exercise of human energy involving moral consid-
erations. It is not to be confounded with those
natural effects of wrong-doing which often fall on
offspring or other innocent related parties as
heavily as on the guilty. It is not to be confounded
with human penalties of any sort often so inappro-
priate, inequitable, and injurious, both to the sub_
ject and to the public weal. It is a strictly divine

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 191

visitation, provided for and made sure by the ordi-
nations of a perfectly wise, just, merciful, loving
God, under the workings of a perfectly devised
and administered moral government, to the end of
securing at length a perfectly ordered, harmonious,
happy world and universe. It contemplates and
makes effective, sooner or later, the reformation
of the offender, while sustaining the supremacy
and majesty of the eternal law of righteousness.
As related to human beings, its execution begins
in this world, but extends into the world to come,
operating there, as here and everywhere, not to
recompense God for any benefit derived from Him
or for any injury done to Him ; not to display the
divine sovereignty and power, but absolutely and
solely to promote the virtue, holiness, and happi-
ness of each individual soul involved, and of the
whole vast realm of conscious being.

The article in question also avoids and precludes
certain grave and pernicious errors, among which
are the following : That the rewards and pun-
ishments administered by men upon their fellow-
men, as in the ■ family, in the school, in the
governments of towns, cities, states, and nations,
are necessarily divine, and, according to the order
of God's Providence, — being often deplorably partial,
cruel, and unjust ; that all natural consequences
of human conduct are essentially retributory ; that
recompense for well or ill-doing comes from a
pleased or offended Deity ; that it is designed to
satisfy the divine justice without regard to the
divine mercy ; that simple suffering can be in any

192 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

case a satisfaction for sin, and can be borne by
an innocent substitute as well as by the guilty, as
the dogma of vicarious atonement implies ; that
the penal inflictions of the future world have no
intentional reformatory purpose or power ; and that
there can be, and is to be, under the divine econ-
omy, everlasting punishment for certain of the
human race, either in the form of unending misery
or of utter annihilation. These and kindred errors
are so false as deductions of moral philosophy, so
repugnant to an enlightened understanding, so
derogatory to the divine perfections, so opposed
to Scripture, and so pernicious withal, that, if
admitted into the organic plan of an ecclesiastical
body and made to shape its testimony and its
policy, it would seriously debase its membership
and limit its power of virtue, usefulness, and
redemption in the world. They so degrade and
pervert the character of the Heavenly Father as
to rob Him of His parental attributes, and render
Him unworthy of supreme homage and filial imita-
tion, making Him an example of vindictiveness,
implacability, cruelty, and even malevolence, to be
contemplated only with revulsion and abhorrence.
The logical and moral fruits of such fallacies are
bigotry, intolerance, persecution, revengefulness,
hatred of enemies, and kindred immoralities, as
repugnant to the principles and spirit of the
religion of Christ as they are to the finer instincts
of the human heart. They must, therefore, be dis-
allowed and made forever impossible in a true
Christian church by incorporating in its platform
the fifth article of my proposed standard of faith.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 193

(6.) "Moral and spiritual regeneration by a
rising out of animal selfishness and sinful indul-
gence into the love of heavenly principles — of
man and God — as the supreme motive and impulse
in life, is absolutely necessary to the deliverance
of every human soul from the power of evil, and
its attainment of Christlike holiness and happiness,
in this or any possible state of existence."

This article implies, and virtually teaches, that
man is naturally, and to begin with, chiefly an
animal, however mentally, morally, and spiritually
capacitated ; that his animal propensities and pas-
sions, which are inherently selfish and fleshly, at
first dominate and actuate him ; and that, to enable
him to attain and illustrate the best of which he
is capable, there must be a change of controlling
forces, a change from the animal and selfish pre-
dominance to the moral and spiritual, corresponding
to the change from the embryonic to the inde-
pendent life of the infant child, and so properly
called " the new birth." And this implies, not a
transformation of the primary constitution of a
human being, but a transferrence of his vital con-
sciousness from the lower to the higher nature
within him, with a corresponding passing over
of the control of his life and character from
the animal propensities and passions to the impulses,
aspirations, hopes, and loves that characterize
him as a spiritual being — a son of God, and
heir of immortality; a passing over from that
condition in which he is actuated by fleshly appe-
tites and self-seeking ambitions to that loftier

194 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

condition in which love of truth and good, of God
and man, become supreme in his thought and con-
duct, and in which he takes on more and more
with his advancing years the attributes and qual-
ities of the infinite perfection. The importance
of this doctrine of regeneration may be seen in
the fact that no human soul can be saved, or
attain to its noblest and its best, so long as it is
under the sway of carnal, selfish propensities and
ambitions, but only when it rises into the realm of
the eternal verities, is animated by its inherent
divine energies, and thereby brought into touch
with, and under the guidance and inspiration of,
the powers of the world to come.

This article, moreover, avoids and precludes cer-
tain vicious errors : — That man was radically
changed from good to evil by Adam's sin; that,
by the new birth, he is as radically changed from
total depravity to holiness of heart and life; that
regeneration is wrought by miraculous interpo-
sition, and not by the quickening of the inherent
capabilities of the soul through human agency
co-operating with the normal action of the Holy
Spirit; that it is somehow inseparably connected
with water baptism ; that it consists in mere
change of belief, in giving up one set of opinions
for another, presumably truer and better, or in a
change of religious fellowship — going from one
sect or church to another; and, finally, that it is
merely a matter of education, of the formation of
good habits, of the leading of an exemplary out-
ward life before the world, without regard to the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 195

impulses, desires, emotions, aspirations of the heart,
out of which are the issues of life, or to the
influences, inspirations, ministries of the spiritual
world above, and the helping grace of Him
*'from whom cometh down every good and per-
fect gift." Against such misapprehensions, illu-
sions, and deceits, a true church of Christ would
be fully protected by the article before us. [See
Vol. I, Discourses XVIII-XX.

(7.) "It is divinely ordained that, under the media-
torial reign of Christ, good will finally triumph
over all evil in the world of humanity, righteous-
ness and peace everywhere prevail, and * God be
all in all.' "

By " the mediatorial reign of Christ " in this
declaration is meant that feature of the divine
order of the universe, or that manifestation of the
over-ruling Providence of God, which is often termed
the Christian Dispensation — that great movement
in human history, imperfectly represented by the
nominal church, which started under the leadership
of Jesus of Nazareth some 1900 years ago, in Pales-
tine, of which he, through his teachings, life, and
character, has, during the intervening ages, been
the inspiration and guiding star; and by which he,
under some high commission from the King of
kings, was qualified, empowered, and authorized to
be a medium of communication between God and
man for the uplifting and redemption of the entire
human race. The good that is to triumph over all
evil includes everything holy, pure, divine ; all that
makes for order, righteousness, peace, happiness •

196 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

while evil represents the opposite, whatever is in
itself wrong and vile, and makes for disorder,
immorality, degradation, misery. Good and evil, as
thus defined, are in natural moral antagonism to
each other, and have been in conflict for the mas-
tery of individual souls and of the world ever
since man appeared upon the earth. And the con-
flict is to go on in this and in the future state of
being, wherever man is found, good ever advancing,
evil ever retreating, until at length good shall gain
complete and universal victory. Then, as the result,
shall righteousness and peace prevail — the right-
eousness and peace of Christ's Gospel — and God
shall indeed be "all in all;" not in the theological
sense of omni-presence as a natural attribute of
Deity, but in the sense of spiritual unity, made
real to human faith and consciousness according
to the prayer of Jesus, " As thou, Father, art in
me and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us;" and to the saying of John, ** He that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." So
shall the mission of Christ be fulfilled, his work be
consummated, and his name be forever glorified.

A few errors excluded from the catagory of true
Christian beliefs and set at naught by this article
may be specified, to wit : — That this mortal life is
the sole probationary period for man, and affords
his only chance for gaining heaven ; that at death
every man's destiny is fixed for all the eternity to
come ; that while the good may grow better and
the bad worse in the future state, no one can turn
from bad to good, or in any case reform his evil

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 197

ways ; that no moral agencies are there employed
to save lost souls ; that Christ, as Teacher, Guide,
Mediator, is of no account beyond the boundaries
of time ; that he has no just claim to the pre-
eminence given him in the capacity indicated even
in this world, all progress and happiness here and
hereafter being attained by the invincible necessity
of nature and nature's laws ; that sin and evil as
pertaining to the human race will continue to all
eternity, and the impenitent dead be consigned to
utter extinction of conscious being or to irreme-
diable woe, world without end.

None of these doctrines, however specious and
attractive in some of their aspects, or awful in
others, have any foundation in Scripture, in reason,
or in sound spiritual philosophy, and have no place,
therefore, in the platform of a true Christian
church, but are to be forever discredited and pro-
scribed. The moral government of God, of which
Jesus is, above all others, the duly accredited
Ambassador and Vicegerent among men, must be
the same at all times and in all states of being,
and must be administered in the interest and for
the ultimate well-being of all its subjects. Yea,
more ; it must be an all-powerful goverrtment,
going forth conquering and to conquer, wherever
its heralds lead the way, wherever its ensigns are
set up, and in the end gain the victory over all its
foes, bring all souls into submission to its author-
ity, and win them all to heartfelt, grateful, happy
allegiance to itself, to God, its Sovereign Head,
and to Christ, its Minister Plenipotentiary and

198 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

Commandant on the earth, who ** must reign till
he hath put all enemies under his feet." Then,
and not till then, shall he return his commission
to Him who gave it, yield his place in the great
mediatorial scheme of redemption to Him who
appointed him unto it, "that God may be all in
all." [See Vol. I, Discourses XXV-XXVHL]

DISCOURSE XII.

EXPOSITION OF THEOLOGICAL FAITH. PART 2,

" For there is one God and one Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus." — i Tim. ii. 5.

"Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation." — 2 Tim. iii. 15.

" Why even of yourselves judge ye not what isright ? " —
Liike xii. 57.

"And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a
conscience void of offence toward God and toward man." —
Acts xxiv. 16.

In the present discourse I am to continue the dis-
cussion of that portion of the general Statement
of Theological Faith proposed for the true Chris-
tian church, which has already been designated
under the following head, to wit : —

2. Christy The Scriptures, Reason, Conscience.

( I.) "The historical Jesus of Nazareth is pre-
eminently the Son of God, the foreordained
Christ, Lord, and Savior of the world ; to be
loved, reverenced, trusted, and obeyed in all sin-
cerity and loyalty of heart."

A deliberate, freely-given assent to and confes-
sion of this proposition or article of belief places

200 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

one unequivocally on distinctive Christian ground,
and differentiates him from all classes of deniers,
unbelievers, non-committalists, and indifferentists,
whatever be the name they bear. Those making
such assent and confession, if faithfully indoctri-
nated, regard Jesus as properly human in respect
to his personal entity, yet as a providential, model
man, designed, elected, and fitted by the superin-
tending, indwelling divine Spirit to sustain the
highest mediatorial office between God and men.
They see in him a long-predicted personage, born
in the fullness of time, matured according to the
laws of spiritual development, inspired by the
perpetually conscious presence of the Infinite
Father, whereby he became Christ, the anointed.
They view him, not as a common man — not as a
Christ, one among many equally called and qualified
for the work of uplifting and redeeming mankind,
but as the Christ, first-born of many brethren,
chiefest of the sons of God, emphatically the Son
of God, and the chosen Saviour of the world from
sin and its consequent evils and miseries. And
this mission he fulfills, not by appeasing the divine
wrath, nor by suffering the penalty of human trans-
gression as a substitute for the transgressor, but
by the whole complex process of his mediatorial
service on earth and in heaven. Hence, they feel
bound to love, reverence, trust, and obey him
implicitly to the glory of God, the Father. To
them, his word is God's word, his law God's, law,
his work God's work, and his authority the author-
ity of God, Most High.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 201

(2.) "The Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament contain records of indispensable value
to mankind ; especially those that relate to the
Christ, which include promises of his coming and
trustworthy testimonies concerning his birth, the
essential spirit and principles of his religion, his
life and ministry, his death, resurrection, glorifica-
tion, and ultimate triumph over all the powers of
darkness and iniquity."

This article sets aside all ecclesiastical authori-
ties, apocryphal books, the opinions of '* Christian
Fathers," decisions of church councils, and unau-
thenticated portions of either Testament. It holds
the sincere searcher after truth to the only reliable
sources of information relating to Christ and pure
Christianity, and frees him from those fetters by
which priestly assumption has so long bound mil-
lions of nominal Christians to error and corruption.
Common honesty, as well as fidelity to the great
Teacher, demands that loyal disciples go to the
only genuine records of what Jesus and his Apos-
tles experienced, taught, and instituted to learn
what Christianity is, and what it requires of all
those who profess to believe it and desire to live
by it. Such disciples will ignore all unauthorized
versions of the sacred word, all traditions and mis-
interpretations born of ignorance, prejudice, and
bigotry, and apply themselves to those sources of
knowledge which alone are worthy of regard and
confidence. In this way, and only in this way,
can they be kept from harmful misbelief, and led
in the path of truth and duty, as to Christ and
his holy religion.

202 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

(3.) "The Scriptures are to be reverenced and
studied in order to ascertain the facts, truths,
doctrines, to which they bear witness ; always
regarding the spirit rather than the letter of them,
as of vital importance to the salvation and happi-
ness of mankind."

The essential ideas, principles, sentiments of the
Old and New Testament are to be regarded as in
some sense revelations of the mind and will of
God, addressed to the human understanding, urged
upon the conscience, and made obligatory for prac-
tical exemplification in the character and life. But
how are they to be ascertained and rendered avail-
able to human need ? Not by accepting the Bible
in its verbal expression as the word of God, and
by a consequent blind deference to the letter of
the text, but by determining its vital spirit and care-
fully distinguishing between what is fundamental
and what is incidental therein, between what is of
local, transient nature and use and what is of per-
manent and everlasting importance and worth. The
Christianity of Christ rests not upon the incidental,
the local and transient in the Scriptures, but
upon what is fundamental, permanent, ever-endur-
ing therein. Could this be invalidated, Christianity
would fall and the Bible would lose all vital
power to uplift and save. But though all else were
swept away the grand superstructure would remain
unshaken and the Bible would still be worthy of
profound veneration and regard. The Bible has
suffered intolerable abuse from superstitious friends
and infidel enemies alike, by reason of giving it a

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 203

literal interpretation and counting its entire con-
tents as indiscriminatingly inspired and of equal
divine authority. There is scarcely a false and
absurd tenet held by wrangling sects, scarcely an
unjust and brutish custom or practice of miscalled
Christian civilization, that has not found justifica-
tion in the mere letter of Scripture regardless of
its essential spirit. And there is scarcely a criti-
cism, objection, or sneer of Bible-haters, that does
not rest on the same sandy foundation. The world
will be rid of these abuses when the truth
embodied in the article under notice is made the
basis of human inquiry and judgment. Then will
the sacred volume be found to stand upon its real
merits and receive the rational reverence of all
high-minded people which its transcendent excel-
lence justifies and demands.

(4) "The New Testament Scriptures transcend
the Old as they supplement and fulfill them in
their teachings of absolute truth and righteousness."

This is easily demonstrated by enlightened reason,
which shows that it must be so in the very nature
of things and by the concurrent testimony of both
Testaments. The Old foreshadows and prophecies
the New, while the New claims to be the consequent
of the Old — the "better covenant," the more
glorious dispensation, for the coming of which the^
Old prepares the way. Passages to this effect are
abundant and familiar and need not be recapitu-
lated. And yet deplorable error has always pre-
vailed in the church respecting the relation of the two
great divisions of the Scriptures to each other, as

204 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

it still prevails, much to the confusion of ingenuous
■minds and much to the injury of the cause of
Christ ; an error growing out of the already men-
tioned theory of the plenary inspiration of the
Bible and out of the mischievous notion that every
book, chapter, verse is alike the word of God.
According to that theory, history, prophecy, poetry,
parable, hyperbole are put upon the same level, the
allegories of ancient literature and the sayings of
ancient seers are vested with the same authority
as the principles of eternal righteousness, the pre-
cepts of the Sermon on the Mount, and the two
great commands of love to God and love to man;
while Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and all the
older prophets are deemed as worthy of credence
as Jesus, John, and Paul, or, it may be, better, if
their utterances accord more fully with the opinions
or prejudices of those seeking Bible sanction for
themselves or others. In this way have priestly
orders, state religion, vindictive punishment, slav-
ery, polygamy, war, persecution of heretics, and
many another relic of barbarism, been maintained
through successive Christian ages, the vital spirit
and unquestionable teachings of Jesus to the con-
trary notwithstanding. Thus has the mind of
Christendom been brought to confusion, the Bible
been made a football for contending partizans, the
Gospel of the great Teacher been perverted, and
Christ himself has suffered reproach, if not mar-
tyrdom, in the house of his professed friends. It
is for the renovated church to correct these errors,
reform these abuses, and restore proper relations

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 205

between the Old and New Testament records, and
so further the cause of pure and undefiled religion
among men.

(5.) "The free exercise of the reasoning facul-
ties in man — the understanding and the judgment —
is necessary to the ascertainment and comprehen.
sion of divine truth in its various bearings upon
human life and destiny; but the reason has no
authority against the truth when once assuredly
ascertained." (See Discourse XVIII, Vol. II.)

This statement or declaration of Christian faith
is designed to secure its confessors from two long-
prevailing and mischievous errors which confront
them in their endeavors to determine the true way
of life. The first of these, generated and perpetu-
ated by the church itself, is that reason and reli-
gion are hostile to each other ; or, at least, that
the powers of the understanding are not to be
trusted in considering questions pertaining to the
divine life, being misleading and dangerous ; and
that, therefore, blind, unreasoning faith in certain
assumed verities concerning God, Christ, salvation,
destiny, etc. are not only meritorious, but indis-
pensable to acceptance with God. This is a mon-
strous fallacy and the foster parent of many
abominations in the religious world. The other
and an opposite error is that human reason is
supreme in the being of man ; the sole judge of
divine truth, the only guide to duty, and the final
arbiter of destiny; not one among several other
human faculties to be consulted in the great work
of life, and like them liable to err and so needinof

206 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

light and inspiration, but a sort of infallible divin-
ity whose behests are to be regarded without
question or hesitancy. This is a scarcely less
monstrous fallacy than the other, and like it the
fruitful source of mischief and misery, precipitating
myriads into self-deification, scepticism, unbelief,
irreligion. It often leads one into the grossest
materialism, causing him to ignore the existence
of a divine being, an over-ruling providence, a
supersensuous world, the undying element in man,
immortality, revelations and inspirations, spiritual
experiences, and either remanding all that is
noblest and best in human nature to the realm of
superstition and fantasy or degrading it to the low
level of materialistic facts and phenomena or of
merely animal impulse, passion, and possibility.
The true office of reason is not to clothe itself in
the robes of authority and issue decrees and
declare judgments out of its own undisciplined,
and self-exalted consciousness, but to recognize the
manifold grades of being in which the universe
abounds, physical, sensuous, intellectual, aesthetic,
moral, religious, celestial, divine, and to form con-
clusions and render awards in any given case with
due reo:ard to its relation to the whole diversified
realm to which it properly belongs. It is to search
out principles, consult facts, weigh evidence, balance
probabilities, employ every available means to deter-
mine what is right, good, and true, and, having so
determined, to accept and abide by the result in
all modesty, making it serviceable in the work of
improving personal character and of enlightening

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 207

and emancipating mankind. Especially should it
act upon these lines in respect to all matters per-
taining to religion and the higher life of men, pay-
ing just deference to all the other faculties of
human nature equally capable of judging divine
realities with itself, and operating co-ordinately with
them to the great end of perfecting the individual
soul and bringing in the kingdom of God. This
done its authority is at an end and its mission in
the divine order accomplished.

(6.) "Fidelity to one's own conscientious con-
victions of truth and duty is essential to moral
integrity and progress in the Christian life ; but
conscience is ever under imperative obligations to
conform itself to the ever-revealing, ever-rising
light of God."

Two important points are distinctively indicated
and made obligatory in this declaration. First,
that every one must be unwavering, faithful, and obe-
dient to the dictates of his or her own conscience
for the time being, as vitally necessary to personal
moral rectitude and growth in the divine life; and
second, that conscience is not self-contained, infal-
lible, and unsusceptible of change, but subject to
edification and improvement, and sacredly bound
to welcome and yield itself to whatever accessions
of wisdom and grace may, in divine providence, be
vouchsafed it. Both of these attitudes of the moral
sense were signally illustrated in the character and
career of the Apostle Paul. He was scrupulously
conscientious when in his early manhood, as Saul
of Tarsus and a devoted champion of the Jewish

208 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

faith, he persecuted the disciples of Christ, and
also when later on, after his conversion, he counted
it all joy to suffer for the Master's sake and to go
to a martyr's death, if so it need be in order to
advance the cause and kingdom of his new found
Lord. He was a conscientious moral tiger to
besfin with as he was afterward a moral lamb.
His conscience ruled him no less in the former
case than in the latter, but it was a conscience
which recognized its own imperfection and which
was submissive to such light from on high as was
given it. When that light increased, or when new
light was shed abroad in his mind and heart, Paul
accepted it and followed it with unfaltering fidelity
and zeal. Thus the intolerant and blood thirsty foe
of the Gospel of Jesus became its devoted, earnest,
courageous champion ; a sincere follower of the
meek and lowly one of Nazareth, the foremost
Apostle of the faith of Christ.

So must it be with all true disciples, with all
members of the regenerate church. Conscience
must be held sacred but not infallible. In its
utmost sincerity it may mistake and lead one into
serious error, possibly into great wrong, yet it is
always to be respected, and fidelity to its demands
is an imperative duty. And all the more impera-
tive for the reason that only by such fidelity can
the moral and spiritual progress of any human
being be secured ; can there be any such thing as
growth of the divine life in the soul. One true
to conscience will welcome the ever-increasing light
which shines forth from the presence of the imma-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 209

nent Spirit of God and will be led by it to higher
and still higher levels of experience and attainment
continually.

But we must not confound conscience with the
light that illumines, quickens, guides it along its
ever-ascending way. Conscience is the human
attribute or faculty that recognizes moral distinc-
tions, asserts the supremacy of truth and righteous-
ness, commends faithfulness to duty and condemns
unfaithfulness, and counts itself a servant, never a
master, of that divine light which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world. The light is the
effluence of the spirit of truth, wisdom, and love,
emanating from God to illume, rectify, and per-
fect all human capabilities and qualify them for
the highest possible service of God and man.
Regarding conscience with all proper honor and
counting infidelity to its monitions an offence
worthy of severe reprobation, we are never ta
assume that our own or other people's consciences
are the final authority in any case, but are them-
selves subject to a still higher power and a more
trustworthy guidance — the power and guidance of
the Holy Spirit of Him who giveth to all men
liberally and upbraideth not, and who is more
willing and anxious to bestow His Holy Spirit
upon those who desire it than are earthly par-
ents to bestow good things upon their children.
Therefore are all members of the true Christian
church — all learners in the school of Christ to
be taught and pledged to be ever faithful to the
dictates of conscience, and yet never to make it

210 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

a bar to higher divine illuminations, or allow its
voice to drown the voice of the infinite Father
of all souls. Rays of the eternal wisdom shining
through the understanding and revealing the way
of duty must govern and direct the conscience —
the absolutely true and right, represented in the
will and law of God, must be supreme, now and
forevermore.

Thus far and thus much concerning the six
articles of belief which form the complex subject
of discussion in the present discourse, and which
I deem of sufficient theoretical and practical
importance to be incorporated in the organic basis
of my proposed Christian church. The soundness
of them I deem settled beyond all serious question
by considerations which I have simply indicated
in what I have said, without attempting to give
them the elaboration of which they are capable,
but which time and space will not allow me to
indulge in under existing circumstances. I trust
that the positions I have assumed, and the dis-
tinctive doctrines I have announced, will receive
respectful and candid attention on the part of any
who may be interested in building anew the
Christian church on its original foundations, and
that my suggested lines of argument therefor may
be followed out to their legitimate conclusions.

But some will say, admitting that the several
articles under notice are true and important, why
not leave them to the good sense and better
judgment of men ; seeking to extend their accept-
ance and salutary influence by occasional reference

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 211

to them, or by the general inculcation of their
essential spirit, without formulating them and
enjoining them upon all who may be disposed to
enter the proposed church ; without incorporating
them in a creed, and making them part and parcel
of a definite statement of belief? For the reason
that by so doing they would naturally fall out of
notice, be ignored, neglected, treated as of no
account ; especially by the less thoughtful, con-
scientious, and devout of professors. Their value
recognized, they should be made prominent, put
in the foreground, kept ever in mind, and given
pre-eminence in the organization of the church,
as well as in sermons, exhortations, or other
formal means of religious instruction, study, and
improvement. As error has had place in the fun-
damental law of the church of the past, and
been confirmed, strengthened, clothed with power
thereby, so let it be with all vital truth in the
church of the future — the church of the new
dispensation which the world so much tweeds, and
for which the noblest and most Christlike souls
in no far distant day will be ready to labor as
well as to pray.

DISCOURSE XIII.

EXPOSITION OF PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth
righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous — i John,
iii, 7.

The declaration of divine truth which I propose
as the proper platform of the true church of Christ
presents eight articles of Personal Righteousness,
to be acknowledged as sacred and obligatory by
all those who are in orderly, organic connection
with it. In some of my earlier published writings
they were stated in a more condensed form than
is given them in the series of discourses now in
hand, and in Vol. II of this work on Primitive
Christianity they are discussed at considerable
length, as the reader has probably already found,
or may find, at his pleasure. What I have now
to offer concerning them in the way of exposition,
verification, and defence will vary somewhat from
the presentation there made, and will, I trust,
contribute to a more perfect understanding of my
views touching the practical nature and value of
the religion which I most earnestly desire to see
restored to its original simplicity and purity.

The first principle, or doctrine of Personal
Righteousness, as tabulated in the present volume,
is stated thus*: —

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 213

I. "God, the universal Father, must be wor-
shiped in spirit and in truth ; not in formal
pretence or glittering display, to be seen of men ;
not in any merely external solemnity or demon-
stration ; not necessarily at any hallowed time or
place ; — but always and everywhere, with pro-
found reverence and adoration for His moral
attributes and perfections of character as an omni-
present, conscious Spirit ; and in proportionate
degree with a like reverence and adoration for
all that is absolutely Divined

This enjoined duty I proceed to analyze, define,
illustrate, and apply in a few brief, expressive
sentences,^ according to the best light and judg-
ment at my command.

" God, the universal Father, must be wor-
shiped; " that is, must be recognized, acknowl-
edged, regarded, and looked up to as the infinite,
self-conscious Supreme One, *' in whom we all live
and move and have our being." Not because He
needs to receive homage, but because finite moral
natures need to render it, in order to their own
development, purification, and happiness. "In spirit
and in truth;" that is, from within; by the under-
standing, the affections, and the will, with the
mind and the heart, in all unaffectedness and sin-
cerity. Nothing else is true worship ; nothing else
is acceptable to God or profitable to men. "Not
in formal pretence, etc., to be seen of men;" not
to attract the attention, win the admiration, or
command the awe of fellow human beings ; for
this is hypocrisy and guile. " Not in any merely

214 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

external solemnity or demonstration ; " such wor-
ship is superficial, vain, worthless. "Not neces-
sarily at any hallowed time or place ; " for while
certain seasons or localities may reasonably be set
apart and consecrated to sacred uses, they are
not of themselves holy, and the observance of
them is not necessarily worship. True worship
is independent of them, although it may be helped
by them. "With profound reverence and adora-
tion for His moral attributes and perfections
of character;" not with wonder, awe, anxiety,
fear, or terror, in view of His greatness. His
almightiness, His power to harm or destroy. His
anger or wrath, but with the profoundest possible
regard, admiration, desire for union and communion
with, — in view of His goodness — His perfect
justice, wisdom, love — manifest in His all-perfect
character. "As an omnipresent, conscious Spirit;"
not as an organic personality, representable by any
outward image or likeness ; not as a localized being-
seated on some throne at the center of the universe;
not as some blind, unconscious principle or power
of nature, or plexus of eternal laws; not merely
as omniscient, Deific intelligence distributed through
unbounded space; but as the living Soul of the
universe — the Supreme Mind and Heart, acting
voluntarily according to the dictates of perfect
wisdom and love, at every conceivable point of
immensity, from eternity to eternity. And "a
like reverence and adoration " " in proportionate
degree" is due towards everything that is "abso-
lutely Divine -y'' that is, towards whatever is of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 215

the same nature as God, or proceeds directly from
Him, as distinguished from all inferior grades of
being, secondary causes, and the operations of
merely human agencies. We are to recognize as
essentially divine the sublime order of the world,
the laws and forces of the material universe, the
moral government of rational and responsible beings,
the teachings of science, the evolutions of history,
the diversified allotments in the life of mankind.
As we are the revelations that God makes of
Himself by His Spirit to the children of men, and
by the lives and inspired teachings of poet and
sage, of apostle and evangelist, and of all the
"prophets that have been since the world began."
All saintly and truly noble men and women are
worthy of subordinate reverence and adoration,
because they are animated by the Spirit of the
immanent God, and because they illustrate some-
thing of the indwelling divinity in their lives and
characters. The influence and workings of God's
Spirit, what is termed the Holy Ghost, the Word
(Logos), or Wisdom of God, wherever manifest and
however ascertained, are divine in degree, and are
to be proportionally reverenced and adored. Such
manifestation was most strikingly displayed, and
is most clearly seen, in Jesus of Nazareth, whose
pre-eminent endowments, exalted character, and
inimitable lessons concerning God, man, duty and
destiny — concerning life, death, and immortality,
attest, beyond all peradventure, the fact that God
was with him and in him by the richness and
fullness of the Holy Spirit, making him, indeed,

216 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the Christ, the superiorly anointed one, — the
teacher, guide, leader, redeemer of the children
of men. Wherever divinity is seen to exist, subor-
dinate, but akin to, as" proceeding from the supreme
divinity of the Infinite One, it is to receive the
homage, the adoration, the praise, in proportionate
degree, of all members of the true church of
Christ.

This first article of Personal Righteousness in
the creed of the new ecclesiasticism which I hope
to aid in building up among men, not only avoids
and precludes certain great errors concerning wor-
ship, which have prevailed in the church from an
early day and which I have directly or indirectly
referred to in what I have already said, but also
certain other ones — errors of an opposite character
yet no less detrimental to the true worshipful
spirit and to a perfect righteousness. One of
these is that times, places, and formalities of wor-
ship are per se incompatible with true spiritual devo-
tion and should be discountenanced and abandoned.
Another, that in the last analysis there is no
essential difference between the uncreated self-
existent divine nature and created, subordinate,
dependent nature ; that there is really but one sub-
stantial essence of being, though manifesting itself
in endless and numberless variety of phenomena ;
therefore true worship must be pantheistic, recog-
nizing God as all and all as God, to be reverenced
and adored, not as a distinct, self-conscious person-
ality, with definite conceptions of His nature and
character, by definite, orderly exercises of devotion,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 217

but as the impersonal absolute, with an informal,
philosophical sentimentality. A third error is that
however it may be with lower forms of being,
material or animal, human nature and divine nature
are certainly the same ; God is human and man is
divine, and the best if not the only way to know
God is to study humanity and the truest way of
worshiping Him is to exalt and glorify humanity,
or the God in ourselves and in our common race.
A final error that I will mention is that all wor-
ship, spiritual and formal alike, and all so-called
search after, desire for, and communion with God
is sheer superstition, born of baseless imaginations,
illusions, or assumptions, worthless to God, if there
be a God, and worse than worthless to men ; in
fine that there is no such thing as piety aside from
or as a part of morality, and that all righteousness
consists in promoting the welfare and happiness of
ourselves and others of our kind, with no regard
whatever to any supposed supreme being or to any
other state or sphere of existence than that of
which we are now the inhabitants — the state or
sphere of mortality. These and all kindred errors
are fatal to the pure worship of the Infinite One.
founded as they are on falsities or perverted truths
and hence should be rendered impossible of incor-
poration into the organic framework of a true
church as they are by the article under considera-
tion. [See Vol. II, Discourse I-VI.]

2. " Men should practice humility, self-denial,
and self-sacrifice, whereinsoever regard for personal
interest is contrary to divine law and order, even

218 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

unto great suffering and martyrdom for righteous-
ness sake."

This article recognizes the important fact that
our human personality is composed of two distinct
natures, animal and moral, the lower and the
higher; our conscious selfhood beginning on the
lower or animal plane but rising and going on
towards perfection by long and oftentimes painful
effort in the realm of the higher or spiritual powers
and possibilities. On the lower grade of life self-
seeking and self-gratification are the predominating
motives, with little regard to divine realities or to
the universal good. But when the consciousness
rises to the higher grade of being and comes to
appreciate moral distinctions and to feel moral
responsibilities, the animal instincts and passions
are put under restraint, are subjected to a disci-
pline which involves mortification, labor, suffering,
but which eventuates in a new order of thought
and conduct, in a new type of character ; the
change wrought being denominated in religious
phraseology, the new birth. In the experience of
this higher and better life a profound future is
linked with the present, the good of others is
regarded as inseparable from our own, the voice
of God is heard calling to duty and service, and
a still higher self-hood beckons to attainments
and satisfactions yet to be realized. Then comes
the necessity of self-denial and self-sacrifice ; the
humiliation of unhallowed pride and ambition, the
curbing of the passions, the control of the appe-
tites, the subordination of the entire animal nature

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 219

to the spiritual, the bringing of the whole being —
body, mind, heart, will, into obedience to Christ.
Everything inconsistent with the love of God, of
the truth, and of fellow-human beings, must be
renounced, overcome, put forever away. This
requires humility, faith, courage, conflict ; it may
require martyrdom in extreme cases. But every
cross in the order of divine providence wins a
crown, and self-humiliation is the condition of
true self-exaltation and the way to paradise.

This article also brings into condemnation certain
mischievous errors that have prevailed among men
in all ages of history. ( i ) That in consequence
of Adam's sin all men are totally depraved and
hence are destitute of any higher nature which
with the aid of the Holy Spirit can exercise author-
ity over the lower and bring it into obedience to
the law of eternal righteousness. ( 2 ) That there
is no such difference between the so-called higher
and lower nature in man as is sometimes alleged^
requiring ascent from the latter to the former by
self-abnegation, repentance, regeneration, etc.; but
that human nature is one and the same as to its
essential quality and only needs development along
parallel lines in its every department to serve the
great ends of existence. ( 3 ) That the doctrine of
self-denial, self-humiliation, self-sacrifice, is irrational,,
ignoble, unmanly, degrading, and hence worthy only
of reprobation and utter denial. (4) That the
innate promptings of man's nature teach that every
one should look out for himself, which, being done,,
would leave none unprovided for, and that the

220 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

doctrine of caring for others as much or more than
for one's self tends to thriftlessness, self-neglect,
poverty, vice, and misery. (5) That right and
wrong are based wholly on human expediency and
public opinion for the time being, and so are sub-
ject to modification and change, and not on any
eternal principles of moral order or divine authority
which are *'the same yesterday, today, and forever."
(6) That all the appetites and passions of men are
as much God-inspired and worthy of being gratified
as their highest convictions. (7) That the only
cure for the inordinate ambitions and evil propen-
sities of mankind is to allow them unrestrained
indulgence and let them burn themselves out or
correct themselves by the chastisements thus self-
inflicted. (8) That he is a fool who sacrifices his
own pleasure or makes a martyr of himself for
what he calls righteousness' sake. The world
needs no church in which these and kindred falsi-
ties find justification or shelter. ( For further
elucidation of the subject, see Vol. II, Discourses
VIII, IX.)

3. "Men should be just to all sentient beings
of every name and grade, from the Infinite Creator
himself to the lowest creature of His forming
hand ; in thought, in word, in deed, but never
unmerciful and vindictive."

Justice is an essential principle of Personal Right-
eousness taught and exemplified by the Founder
of the Christian faith. What is the nature of
Justice ? It is equity, fair and honorable dealing,
the rendering to every one his due, or what right-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 221

fully belongs to him according to reason and the
law of God. It presupposes that sentient moral
agents throughout the universe have rights, which,
if properly exercised on their part and duly respected
on the part of others, contribute to the highest
virtue, order, and happiness of mankind individually
and socially ; but which, if wrongfully exercised or
disregarded, are fruitful of mischief to all concerned
and disturbful of the moral order of the world.
All rights imply corresponding duties and respon-
sibilities. And the principle of Justice demands a
recognition of those duties and responsibilities as
well as of the rights themselves and a given
line of conduct with reference to them. While the
rights are to be regarded as sacred and inviolable, the
involved obligations are to be insisted upon and.
faithfully met. This is the foundation of all sound
and equitable jurisprudence, human and divine.

In obedience to this principle men are to cheerfully
concede to others what properly belongs to them and-,
to demand of them scrupulous fidelity to all the great
trusts of life. And in claiming cognizance and
respect for their own rights they are not to forget or
ignore the duties and responsibilities which God and:
nature impose upon themselves, or fail to fulfil them^
to the utmost possible extent. The principle of
justice also requires every moral agent to uphold
and commend whatever in thought, word, or deed
is morally right, good, and true, and to disallow
and condemn whatever is wrong, evil, false, with-
out respect of persons and regardless of fear or
consequences. But it never requires or allows.

222 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

them in any position or relationship, or under any
provocation, to be unmerciful or injurious, even
to the worst offenders against either divine or
human laws, to the most incorrigible sinners. On
the contrary, it demands that the condemnation
and punishment of wrong-doers shall not extend
beyond their legitimate use of upholding the
standard of moral rectitude, and, in inseparable
connection therewith, of reforming the offender ;
his good never being disregarded under pretext
of promoting the general, public safety and wel-
fare, or otherwise, and no punishment ever being
inflicted which, in nature or degree, makes it
difificult or renders it impossible for him to repent,
turn back from his wicked ways, and become
upright, virtuous, and worthy of confidence and
esteem. And this principle of justice, as thus
defined and applied, being an eternal principle,
must be the same in the character of God, and in
the administration of His divine government as
it is in the required character and conduct of His
human children. (See Vol. H, Discourse X.)

4. "They must be truthful in all exercises
and manifestations of mind, in all manner of
speech and action, without deceit or guile, and
without resort to oath-taking or fear of penal
vengeance from either God or man."

(The principle of Personal Righteousness thus
formulated, and declared to be fundamental to the
proper organization of the true church, is so fully
explained, verified, and applied in Discourses XI
and XVI, Vol. II, of the series, that no further
exposition is necessary. )

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 223

5. "They must love all moral and sentient
beings from God, the all-perfect Father, to the
most feeble, most degraded, and vilest of His
human children, with a love which suffereth long
and is kind, and which worketh no ill to its
object."

In this declaration the great central principle of
Primitive Christianity is acknowledged to be true
and obligatory. All moral agents, without excep-
tion and regardless of merit or blame, are to be
loved with a love which contemplates no harm to
them, but only their good. Not the righteous and
worthy alone, but the unthankful and evil ; not our
friends only, but our enemies ; not those simply
who love us, but those who hate, persecute, and
curse us. This required love does not hold it jus-
tifiable, in certain emergencies, to do absolute
harm or wrong to any human being under the plea
of self-defence, justice, necessity, or the public
welfare, but ever desires and seeks the good and
happiness of all. This is akin to God's love,
Christ's love, the Holy Spirit's love ; it is the only
pure, true. Christian love. It approves and fellow-
ships no one in sin, but the contrary ; yet always
strives to promote the well-being of evil-doers
just as really and scrupulously in its rebukes,
disfellowships, and punishments even, as it does
that of well-doers in its approvals, fellowships, and
rewards. It is the soul of genuine goodness,
whether in the divine or in human nature, as it
is the condition and bond of union between the
divine and human. *' Whoso loveth," after the fashion
indicated, "is born of God, and knoweth God."

224 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

This article avoids and excludes those baneful
errors in theology which, while affirming that
"God is love," still embody and inculcate the doc-
trine of endless or annihilative punishment, which
can result in no good to offenders, precludes their
reformation, and which either makes existence an
interminable curse to them, or sinks them out of
sight in unconscious, remediless oblivion. Kindred
to those theological errors are certain ethical ones,
which, while re-echoing the sublime, beneficent,
humane precepts and injunctions of the New
Testament Scriptures, and extolling them to the
utmost, still justify and defend injustice, oppres-
sion, vindictive punishments, the gallows, the war
system ; thus setting those precepts and injunctions
at defiance, or trampling them in the dust, under
the preposterous claim that they must all be
allowed and practised in love. The world has
had enough of this theological and ethical incon-
sistency and barbarism, and the regenerate church
must provide against their perpetuation in its
fundamental principles and form of organization.
(See Vol. II, Discourse XII.)

6. "They must be pure, chaste, temperate,
decorous, and orderly in all things; in thought,
motive, word, deed, and cherished desire."

This article recognizes and insists upon the true
nature and use of all things as seen from the
moral standpoint, and requires that they be justly
distinguished from each other, assigned to their
proper places, allowed their appointed function, and
held to the distinctive office they were intended

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 225

to fill, and to the specific purpose they were calcu-
lated to serve. We are not to confound right and
wrong, good and evil, truth and error, the fit
and the unfit, the one with the other, nor mingle
them incongruously together. We are to hold
every appetite, passion, propensity of the fleshly
constitution strictly to its divinely intended pur-
pose, and in no case allow them, one or all, to
usurp an authority to which they have no rightful
claim, or to gain the mastery over the moral and
spiritual elements of our being. The native dis-
tinctions and relationships which characterize a
common humanity are to be respected, and the
divine purpose in creating them is to be counted
sacred and inviolable. The mysterious economy
by which the successive generations of men appear
upon the face of the earth is to be regarded as a
notable feature of the divine order of the world,
which invests man with something of the creative
energy of God Himself, to be employed to further
the grand design of the all-wise Author of all
things, and to dignify, adorn, exah, and bless
human character and human life; and not, as by
perversion and abuse is often the case, to degrade,
corrupt, and , debauch them, making what should
be deemed the holiest of ofSces — the transmission
of life and the perpetuation of humanity — a source
of demoralization, shame, infamy. ( See Vol. II,
Discourse XV, for further discussion of this sub-
ject.)

7. " They must be patient, persevering, and
steadfast in the furtherance of all right aims and
pursuits."

226 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The principle or duty here stated and inculcated
is well and strongly put by the Apostle Paul in his
letter to the Romans (ii. 6, 7,) where he says
"Who will render * * * to those that by patient
continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor
and immortality, eternal life." Right aims and
pursuits are not only to be kept before us as ends
to be promoted or achieved, as stimulants to per-
sonal endeavor, but they are to command our con-
stant effort, our unfaltering diligence and zeal.
The duties we owe to God and man are to be
discharged, not by fits and starts, not spasmodically,
not on special occasions or at convenient seasons,
but continuously, unintermittingly, without break or
delay, without cessation or loss of interest, to the
end of life. They are to be discharged, moreover,
without feverish excitement, disquietude, over-
anxiety, or discouragement, in view of opposing
forces, hindrances, and long-deferred achievements
or results, but calmly, resolutely, perseveringly, in
the full assurance that our labor is not in vain
in the Lord, that no righteous act falls fruitless,
that in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,
that, faithful to our trust, we shall come off
conquerers and more than cbnquerers, through
Him who loved us. We are always to assume
and feel that what ought to be done can be
done, that truth, justice, right, love, shall triumph
at the last, and that we may do something, if not
in our own strength, yet in the strength of the
Mighty Helper of all aspiring, struggling souls,
to bring about the grand consummation. "He that
endureth to the end shall be saved."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 227

8. "They must unceasingly endeavor, by watch-
fulness and prayer, by constant progress in holy
living, to become more and more Christlike in all
respects ; to be perfect in righteousness and love
as God is perfect — trusting ever in divine strength
and grace to supply their deficiencies, and enable
them successfully "to press forward towards the
mark for the prize of their high calling."

This is the crowning article of my creed, so far
as it relates to Personal Righteousness, embody-
ing the principle and duty of unceasing progress
towards divine moral perfection, which is the
supreme excellence and glory of the Christian
life. We are never to imagine ourselves wise and
good enough to pause in our efforts for self-
improvement, to become stereotyped, to fossilize,
and to aspire after nothing spiritually higher than
what we have attained. Christ is to be our per-
petual model and guide under the Infinite One,
to whom he ever points us, saying, "Be ye per-
fect even as your Father who is in heaven is
perfect." This is not enjoining infinite moral
excellence upon finite beings, but the same
quality and type of character that is illustrated
in God, which we are to' illustrate to the utmost
of our capacity. It sets before all moral agents
the eternal divine goodness as the standard of
duty, as the immaculate ideal which they are to
strive incessantly to make real as far as possible
in themselves ; omitting or neglecting no virtue
or grace essential to such a sublime and glorious
achievement.

228 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

The article under notice avoids and precludes such
mischievous fallacies as that righteousness in God is
radically different from true righteousness in men ;
that God is not to be regarded as our Great Exem-
plar ; that it is impossible for men to attain a Godlike
character; that simple conversion to Christ and the
determination to lead a holy life are all that is required
of any soul, without growth in grace and in divine
moral excellence ; that the church is not a pro-
gressive institution or one of moral and spiritual
gradation, requiring continual advancement or ascent
toward the more perfect and divine, but an eccle-
siastical museum for the preservation and exhibition
of religious fossils and petrifactions ; and that it is
treason to Christ to attempt or propose changes of
form and administration suited to the ever-changing
conditions of thought and life in the world at large.
These falsities are seriously detrimental to the
healthy development and orderly growth of Christian
character and to the highest usefulness of the
church, and are therefore to be forevermore disal-
lowed and exiled from the realm of religion.

The Personal Righteousness delineated in this
Discourse is to be exalted, honored, glorified in the
church of the better dispensation. It is to be con-
fessed, preached, illustrated, exemplified by its mem-
bers— clerical and lay alike^and made dominant in
personal character and in all the relations and con-
cerns of life, even to the extent of shaping ultimately
the policies and multiform activities of communities,
states, and nations throughout the entire world.

DISCOURSE XIV.

EXPOSITION OF THE PBINCIFLES OF SOCIAL
OBDEB.

" Not as though I were already perfect, but I follow after, if
that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus." — Phil. iii. 12.

" For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body ; so also
in Christ." " Now ye are the body of Christ and members in
particular." — i Cor. xii. 12, 27.

The true church of Christ, as I apprehend it and
as I have indicated to some extent in former Dis-
courses, contemplates and requires in its practical
development and administration a new and higher
order of social life than that which now exists any-
where upon the face of the earth ; one established
upon better principles, animated more by the Spirit
of the"Gospel of our Lord, having greater regard for the
interest and welfare of all classes and conditions of
people, and more conducive to human virtue, progress,
harmony, and happiness. The great fundamental
ideas, first truths, or principles which are to distin-
guish such a social order are definitely tabulated in
Discourse VII of the present volume, and constitute
the theme or themes of discussion at this time,
receiving attention in the order of succession already
given them.

230 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I. **The supreme, universal, and perfect Father-
hood of God."

I have already stated and unfolded to some extent
what I regard as the true conception of God's nature,
character, and relation to mankind, including or im-
plying the idea of his divine Fatherhood, but have
not elaborated this last particular with the distinct-
ness and fulness which its importance in the recon-
structive work I have undertaken demands. For it
is in fact the sublimest as it is the most central of
religious truths ; the pre-eminent revelation of the
Christ, and the chief corner-stone upon which rest
the new theology of Christendom, the regenerate
church, and the kingdom of a better future for man-
kind. In the disclosures of the New Testament
concerning the Divine Being we have not only a self-
existent, omnipresent, conscious Spirit for our God,
but a supreme, universal, all-perfect Father. He is
not only the First Cause, Sustainer, and Governor of
the whole infinitarium of being, from the minutest
atom to the most massive globe and from the
smallest animalcule to the loftiest archangel, but He
is the Father of all spirits, including, as most con-
cerns us in this discussion, mankind. As Jesus
taught He is the Father of *' the spirits of all flesh"
on earth and in the unseen world; — the Father of
the good, bad, and indifferent ; of all the children of
men whatever their capability, development, religion,
or moral character. He always has sustained this
tender and sacred relation to them and always will,
world without end ; for He changeth not but is the
same in the essentials of his being, "yesterday,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 231

today, and forever." As a Father of all men, He
loves all, cares for all, blesses all, seeks the enduring
good and happiness of all. He governs all as a
Father, disciplines them, rewards them, punishes
them, under the dictates and impulses of an all-wise
parental affection and regard, cherished and mani-
fested from eternity to eternity. This is the grandest
of all religious ideas, the most sublime of all con-
ceptions of the great uncreated, the divinest of
truths, worthy of profound contemplation, of loftiest
commendation, of most reverential, heartfelt grati-
tude and praise.

But this thought or idea of the divine Fatherhood
is not simply a subject of intellectual apprehension,
a mere theory of the nature and character of Deity,
but a most inspiring, uplifting, ennobling truth, sus-
taining intimate relations to human character and
conduct, and having an immediate bearing upon
human life in all its higher aspects, relationships, and
possibilities. Nothing can so touch, arouse, inspire
the soul of man as the doctrine of God as a Father.
What strength, encouragement, comfort, consolation,
is there in it ! Morally and spiritually it is the most
practical of all doctrines; impressing one with the
thought that he is the child of a divine, all-perfect
parentage, loved, cared for, guarded, and governed
accordingly; making worship on his part, not only a
sacred duty but a high privilege and a delight ;
causing him to see the sinfulness of irreverence,
ingratitude, and disobedience, and to feel profound
sorrow therefor ; calling out his deepest affections
responsively to the parental wisdom and love that

232 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

embosom him and his race; and quickening within
him the holy ambition to become Godlike in spirit,
conduct, and character, to the utmost of his pos-
sibility.

The article of faith under notice transcends and
excludes all such theological notions as that any
portion or class of mankind derive existence from
any other creative source than the divine Father ;
that the Supreme Being reprobates any one or
dooms him to endless sin and suffering ; that He
treats His friends with parental tenderness but his
enemies as a vengeful sovereign ; that whatever
kindness and beneficence He manifests towards all
men in the present life He will display only to those
who die in the true faith or in compliance with certain
alleged conditions of salvation in the life to come,
while regarding all the rest as incorrigible offenders
and aliens, to be shut away from His presence and
His joy forevermore. It also transcends and excludes
those corresponding ethical notions according to
which slavery, war, capital punishment, vindictive
penalties, and the whole list of brutal inflictions and
customs are sanctioned and justified by individuals
and nations, under the pretence that they are neces-
sary to the public defence and welfare, and therefore
allowable and even commendable within the pale of
the church itself. These and all kindred errors and
delusions, born of ignorance and barbarism, are dis-
credited and made reprehensible and odious whert
regarded in the light of the effulgent doctrine of the
universal Fatherhood of God.

2. "The universal Brotherhood of Mankind and
all finite moral agents."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 233

This principle or doctrine is a natural sequence of
that of the divine Fatherhood, and by logical neces-
sity is closely related to it. No reference is made in
considering it to beings or creatures below the moral
plane, but all of every grade upon that plane are
included in the category named, be they of high or
low degree, dwelling in this or in some other world.
The immediate and customary application or use of
it, however, which makes it serve our present purpose,
limits it to the sphere of our common humanity and
especially within the confines of time and sense. In
regard to the relation of man to man and to the
duties growing out of that relationship, the truth
embodied in this second article of the platform of
Social Order is as lofty and majestic in ethics as the
first one is in polemics. In theory it may be partially
or sentimentally apprehended by an inferior grade of
mind and character, but in practice and as a principle
of duty its far reaching significance and applicability
can be recognized and understood only by high-born
souls — souls richly endowed with the wisdom and
deeply imbued with the love of Christ. It is easy to
rhapsodize over the idea of human brotherhood, to
extol and glorify it in eloquent and fervid rhetoric,
but to apply it and live according to its spirit is quite
another matter; is the privilege and achievement
only of those who possess much of the mind of the
Master and who have drank freely of the waters with
which his being was nourished and invigorated, the
fountains whereof in the illimitable love of God are
open to every one thirsting for them. Beginning
with the individual the true sense of brotherhood

234 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

extends to family and friends, to neighbors and fel-
low citizens, to the larger and ever-widening circles
of humanity, until all states and nations, peoples and
races to the very ends of the earth, are included in
the sweep of its beneficient desire and heaven-in-
spired purpose. So teaches and requires our elder
Brother, Instructor, Friend, the Christ of God, and
so sings the humanely religious poet of our mother
land in the following lines : —

" Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake.
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads ;
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace.
One's country next, and last the entire race.
Wide and more wide the o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in of human kind ;
Earth smiles around, with boundless beauty blest,
And Heaven beholds its image in his breast."

This principle of Human Brotherhood implies
that the highest good of every individual, every asso-
ciated body of people, and of the universal race of
man is essentially the same, and that no volition, act,
or course of conduct can be absolutely right which
does not regard, seek, and legitimately promote the
highest good of each and all of human kind. What-
ever impairs or sacrifices the universal good cannot,
all things considered, be best for one's country,
family, or self; and whatever disregards or sacrifices
the good of any individual, family, or nation cannot
be on the whole best for the race. It becomes there-
fore our duty to treat every human being and every

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 235

class or association of human beings in the spirit of
fraternity, with conscientious regard for his and their
real welfare and happiness. The relation of brother-
hood forbids that we kill, maim, torture, or harm any
fellow-creature, however disorderly or wicked he may
be, but it does not forbid us to rebuke, restrain, and
chastise the disorderly and wicked, without positive
injury to them, when they or the community at large
are to be benefited thereby. It rather requires this
oftentimes as a fraternal act and as a duty to all con-
cerned. This is the proper application of the doc-
trine under notice as taught and exemplified by the
Master.

This doctrine of brotherhood is a conclusive protest
against certain ethical assumptions which are still
popular in so-called Christian civilization, among
which are the following ; that self-defence or the
defence of family, state, or nation, beyond a limited
point of forbearance, justifies a resort to violence and
even the destruction of life in extreme cases; that in
such cases the good of the assailant may be sacrificed
to the good of the person assaulted and to the safety
of the public ; that to spare the lives or show mercy
to the outrageously lawless and criminal is cruelty to
the innocent and reprehensible disregard of the com-
mon welfare ; that patriotism is a primal virtue and
may subordinate the precepts of the Gospel of Christ
to the behests of the powers that be ; and that the
vindictive punishment of evil-doers and the destruc-
tion of those declared to be enemies of the state or
nation are perfectly consistent with the teaching
and spirit of Christ. If we cannot have a church.

236 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

that rises above and utters a testimony against these
pretensions, there is little occasion for setting aside
the one we now have, or for seeking its reformation.

3. "The declared perfect love of God to all
mankind."

This universal love of God toward men is implied
and comprised in His moral perfection of character,
and especially in His divine Fatherhood. But what
are we to understand by it .'* Not that He approves,
commends, or is pleased with their follies, frailties,
perversities, iniquities, or regards theni otherwise
than with profound moral reprobation ; not that He
counts them free from all responsibility for their
conduct and character ; not that He ignores or
sets aside as of no importance the great distinc-
tion between well-doing and ill-doing, between
obedience to Him and disobedience ; or that He
regards the innocent and the guilty, the righteous
and the wicked, with the same feelings or emotions)
not that in the order of His moral government He
treats all alike, irrespective of their moral deserts.
By no means. But that recognizing these differ-
ences ; recognizing the wrong, the error, the
wickedness of men. He sees back of them all, un-
derneath all of them, the essential being, the
spiritual entity, the spark of divinity, the image of
Himself, which, however overlaid by worldliness
and sin, however blurred by selfishness and crime,
however paralyzed by passion and unhallowed
■desire, is yet not only existent but charged with
immortal possibilities and powers ; is yet akin to
His own nature and capable of responding to the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 23T

appeals and monitions of His Holy Spirit. And
that the Father loves, cares for, seeks to bless, in
time and eternity. And for the sake of this spiritual,
divine, immortal element in men. He preserves,
protects, governs them and showers upon them
innumerable mercies and tokens of His parental
guardianship and regard. For the sake of this
same element in men, he reproves, admonishes,
chastens, punishes them for their misdeeds ; not in
wrath but in love ; not in justice alone but in
mercy also ; not simply that He may manifest His
moral abhorrence of wrong, or that they may
realize its exceeding sinfulness and fearful conse-
quences, but that they may be profited thereby, be
brought to repentance, and made partakers of His
holiness. So not only are the manifold mercies of
God expressions of His unfailing goodness, but
His chastisements also ; all alike proclaiming His
boundless, never-failing love to all mankind. The
revelations of nature, the testimonies of human
history, the experience of life, as well as the
Christian Scriptures, all bear witness to this sublime
truth.

4. "The required perfect love of man to God."
The principle involved in this article of faith is
so plainly and emphatically stated in the Gospels
and the corresponding duty so unequivocally urged
that no lengthy exposition of it is needed at my
hands. What more explicit and comprehensible on
this point than the answer of Jesus to the inquiry
touching the first great commandment: "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with.

238 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

all thy soul and with all thy mind." That is, with
all thine affectional, thy moral and spiritual, thy
mental powers ; with thy entire nature ; with a
whole-hearted, holy, rational love. It is not an
admiration, a tender regard, an affection for the
being or personality of God that is required of
men, but for His moral nature, for the attributes
of His character, for His government and author-
ity ; and impliedly for all that is divine wheresoever,
howsoever, and in whomsoever, manifest. The
required \oye of man to God inspires reverence
and trust, begets obedience to His laws, promotes
virtue and righteousness, tends to social and civic
order, yields the deepest, purest bliss. Who cher-
ishes it becomes divine and helps to divinize the
world.

5. "The required perfect love of man to man."
This declaration with the obligation attending it
is but a moral as well as logical corollary of the
doctrine of Human Brotherhood just now con-
sidered. Brotherliness and love to one another are
closely-corresponding if not synonymous terms. The
one implies and includes the other. The second
great command asserts the duty they in common
represent. And the most authoritative teachings
of Christ elsewhere and of the Apostles inculcate
the same sacred lesson. Its relation to the most
vital experience of the human soul and its impor-
tance in the Christian type of life is set forth most
plainly by John when he says, " He that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen ? " And the nature,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 2S&

character, and practical application is as plainly-
indicated by Paul, " Love worketh no ill to a neigh-
bor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Or
more explicitly and comprehensively ; " Love suf-
fereth long and is kind ; love envieth not ; love
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not
easily provoked, taketh not account of evil ; rejoiceth
not in unrighteousness but rejoiceth in the truth ;
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things. Love never faileth."
I need not expatiate farther.

6. "The required just reproof and disfellowship
of evil-doers."

The Scriptures of both the Old and New Testa-
ments bear ample witness to the duty expressed in
this sentence. The morally didactic and prophetic
portions of the former are characterized largely by
testimonies against all forms of evil-doing, and by
the condemnation and exposure of evil-doers. The
teachings of the latter are no less stringent though
breathing a more kindly and charitable spirit and
enjoining a more scrupulous care in respect to com-
plicity with iniquity. In Paul's charge to Timothy,
the young minister was instructed to "reprove,
rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine,"
and in his letter to the Ephesians he enjoins
the brethren to "have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove
them." And these passages are representative of
the teaching and spirit of the Master in this regard.
A blind or lax morality would persuade us to make

240 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

no such marked distinction between good and evil^
between the righteous and the wicked, and counsel
us to a more lenient and indulgent course. But
the pure morality of the Gospel is of a sterner
quality. Insisting without modification or limitation
upon the broadest charity, upon a love " which
worketh no ill," it also insists upon the most rigid
adherence to principle in relation to all forms of
wrong. It allows no parleying and no compromise
with unrighteousness. It cannot say, ** Well done"
to the workers of iniquity, nor countenance them
by treating them as if they were without reproach
or guile. This would paralyze its power to reform
and save them ; it would confound itself with its
opposite, nulify its testimony against wickedness;
it would be ethical suicide. Jesus set us an exam-
ple of fidelity to his own teaching and to the spirit
of his religion in this regard when he pronounced
his woes upon the Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites ;
when he drove money-changers from the temple;
when he refused to be made king of a wicked and
adulterous people. And we can do no less than
follow him in this as in other matters pertaining
to the right ordering of our lives. Let us be
faithful.

7. "The required abstinence from resistance of
evil with evil."

To resist evil is one of the distinct purposes for
which Christ came into the world, and to ultimately
overcome it and put it forever away is one of the
great ends which his Gospel is destined to achieve.
To resist evil is therefore a primary duty of all

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 241

true followers of Jesus, of all faithful, consistent
believers in his religion. But such resistance must
be made in a rightful way and by righteous means.
Opposition to wrong-doing must not be manifested
or carried on by wrongdoing. Satan cannot cast
out Satan. We are not to meet falsehood with
falsehood, selfishness with selfishness, cruelty with
cruelty, violence with violence, wrath with wrath,
injury with injury, bloodshed with bloodshed. No
form of inquity can be vanquished by its corre-
sponding iniquity but by its opposite. The anti-
dote for lying is truth ; for selfishness is generosity;
for cruelty, kindness, and so on. Evil must be
resisted and can be overcome only with good. No
wickedness must be wrought under pretence of pro-
moting the general welfare; no injustice committed
in order to secure beneficent results ; no deceit
practiced to help a good cause ; no immorality per-
petrated for righteousness' sake. The end does
not sanctify the means nor is it justifiable under
the Christian law of life to do evil that good may
come. (For a full exposition of this sublime doc-
trine, Christian Non-Resistance, see Vol. II, Dis-
course XIII )

8. ''The designed and required social unity and
harmony of all Christlike souls."

This article not only enjoins unity and harmony
among the disciples of Christ in their ecclesiastical
relations, cordial and friendly intercourse and co-op-
eration on the strictly religious plane, but it antici-
pates and provides for corresponding unity, harmony,
friendliness, and co-operation in all the concerns of

242 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

life. It contemplates an order of human society,
represented in and by the church, which is to
transcend and exclude the manifold antagonisms of
person, property, and selfish interest which exist
in the world as now organized and governed, and
which are the source of incalculable degradation,
suffering, and misery to multitudes of the children
of men. It contemplates an order of human society
in which the spirit and principles of the religion of
the New Testament shall prevail and be manifest
in every department of existence and in all possible
human affairs ; an order of society which shall in
some good degree epitomize the long-prophesied and
long-desired kingdom of heaven on the earth. That
this state of unity and harmony is included in the
divine design and required by the revealed will and
purpose of God in Jesus Christ is clearly indicated
in the prophetic utterances recorded in both the
Old and New Testaments ; in the aspirations and
prayers of all holy souls ; in the progressive nature
and unmeasured possibilities of mankind ; in the
diffusive, uplifting, regenerating, ennobling, har-
monizing power of Christian truth and love ; and
in the growing tendency seen on every hand in
these later times towards that blessed result. Self-
ish, carnal minds cannot appreciate, even if they can
entertain, so grand a thought, so sublime a con-
ception of unity, harmony, brotherhood, peace, as
the article of faith we are considering forecasts and
demands at the hands of the reconstructed church ;
much less are they qualified to make that thought
or conception a glorious reality, to be the archi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 243

tects of the divine society of the future to which
it points and for which it prepares the way. Only
highly spiritualized souls, those who have entered
most fully into the mind and spirit of Christ, those
who are most thoroughly consecrated to his service —
only such can or will engage in the sacred work
of laying sure and strong the foundations and rear-
ing the superstructure of that social order which is
the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse coming down
from God out of heaven. To that work the church
which will some day be founded, whose advent I
would fain do something to hasten, is summoned,
and charged with the duty of performing it in the
article before us. Let it not be unmindful of the
high commission, or neglectful of the sacred, all-
important obligation.

DISCOURSE XV.

OBGANIZATION OF THE TBUE CHUBCH.

"He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church: * * *
that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." — Col. i. i8.

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and
some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ." — Eph. iv. ii, 12.

" There are differences of administrations but the same
Lord." — I Cor. xii. 5.

I have now reached the fifth section of the State-
ment of Faith proposed by me as the platform or
foundation of a properly organized Christian church.
It consists of six articles which I will proceed to
expound, illustrate, and apply in their heretofore
tabulated order.

I. ''There should be some definitely prescribed
and clearly understood conditions of membership."

The true church is not a promiscuous collection
of people interested in things pertaining to the
religious life, coming together on occasions as con-
venience or necessity, pleasure or duty may prompt ;
nor should it ever be regarded in that light ; and
its convocations are not simply mass meetings
designed to serve merely temporary uses. It is a
compact association or body of persons solemnly

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 245

avowing an adherence to certain distinctive princi-
ples of faith and practice, in which they are sub-
stantially agreed, banded together for the specific
purpose of promoting the growth of the Christlike
life in those immediately concerned, and the exten-
sion of the realm of truth, righteousness, love,
peace, and joy on the earth. It must, therefore,
conform to the general modes of organization and
administration which experience in other important
interests of life has proved to be essential to
success, if it would be a power for good in the
world, exercising it functions and prerogatives from
generation to generation through successive periods
of human history. It must have a definitely enrolled
list of recognized, responsible members, who, in
their associated capacity, are to be considered as
constituting the church, and as in sacred duty
bound to maintain its integrity, honor, acknowl-
edged faith, its working activities, its high charac-
ter and unsullied reputation, and its permanent
usefulness as an institution of human society.
Such a membership can be established only by
having some fixed rules or conditions of admission
to it and by scrupulously insisting in every instance
upon conforming to them. Otherwise there will be
after a little time only a conglomerate medley of
incompatibles and irresponsibles with no strong
bond of union holding them together, and the
church will be composed only of individual frag-
ments, shorn of that power which combined energy
and voluntary, whole-hearted co-operation only can
evolve. Under such a lax, imbecile policy the

246 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

church would be but an external form of ecclesias-
ticism and however imposing and pretentious would
have no good reason for being.

What the conditions of admission into the church
of the future should be it is not my purpose to
prescribe. It is probable that no one unvarying
list could be formulated which it would be wise to
attempt to apply in all cases indiscriminately. Each
church should be allowed the liberty of determining
the matter for itself and of acting upon its own
responsibility according to the best light it could
obtain. Only that certain fundamentals should be
included and held inviolable under all circumstances.
The old apothegm in this connection is worthy of
remembrance and of application; "In essentials,
unity ; in non-essentials, liberty ; in all things,
charity." There should be in every instance an
honest, open, unqualified pledge of faith in and
loyalty to Christ as the great spiritual Head of the
church — its Leader and Teacher, of adherence to
the distinguishing truths, principles, doctrines of
his religion as revealed in the New Testament
Scriptures, and of a fixed, determined purpose to
make those truths, principles, doctrines, baptized
with the spirit of Christ, dominant in every depart-
ment and relation of life — to be Christlike in
conduct and character — in deed, word, thought,
feeling, and cherished desire. This avowed and
pledged fidelity might be expressed in whatever
verbal form seemed best in any case, but it should
always be substantially required as a condition of
membership of any and every church bearing the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 247

Christian name. Without such pledged fidelity the
right of a church to that name might well be ques-
tioned if not denied.

But in respect to the manner in which persons
shall be initiated into the church, the form or cere-
monial employed, which is properly included among
the conditions of admission, is a matter of expe-
diency and may vary with times, places, and cir-
cumstances. It should therefore be left to the
.discretion of each church to adopt such method
as might be deemed wise and appropriate and no
church should in any way be blamed or suffer
reproach for not conforming to the established
practice of some other church or of the great body
of churches so long as it violated none of the
essentials of Christian faith and maintained its
allegiance to the great Founder of that faith as
shown in the character and works of those belong-
ing to it. The primitive church made water baptism,
as derived from prior custom, a mode of initiation
and covenanted discipleship, yet it was not regarded
as indispensable, or, I think, universally employed.
The true, vital Christian baptism is of the spirit, pro-
ducing the moral likeness of Christ, and that experi-
enced the external rite may be left to the wisdom
or preference of each church without dictation or
interference.

2. " There should be wisely provided constitu-
tional formularies of organic association, to be
intelligently adopted and scrupulously observed."

Neander thinks that the earliest Christian churches
in their organic character were modeled after that of

248 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the Jewish synagogue, or much resembled it, as was
very likely the case. However that was, we may
be quite sure that they had, at an early day, a
regularly constituted membership, a definite form
of organization as to offices and functions, and
regular modes of administration. These would
naturally be very simple and practical at the out-
set. Among them were included, according to the
testimony of the New Testament records, ways and
means of caring for the poor and suffering among
the brethren and of furnishing them and their
dependents with what was requisite for their sus-
tenance, comfort, and general well-being. What
further constitutional provision was made at that
period for supplying the necessities of the less
fortunate and prosperous, or for contributing to
their happiness we have no means of knowing, as
we have none for determining conclusively whether
or not those primitive believers had anything like
a formulated bond of union, written constitution,
or literal charter for their governance. That is a
matter of little importance so long as there is good
reason for affirming that they had the things for
which documents of this sort stand, to wit : the
definitely recognized membership, equitable distri-
bution of responsibilities, and orderly methods of
administration ; so long too as there was in the
very genius of Christianity itself, as they under-
stood and applied it, ample adaptability to the
changed conditions and ever-increasing necessity of
the church and the world for all coming genera-
tions; — ample provision for that social expression

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 249

of the Christian law of love to God and man,
which I have portrayed and insisted upon in the
earlier pages of the present volume.

3. "There should be some recognized, cordially
approved, and duly authenticated order of Christian
ministry."

This article or declaration is not designed and
must not be understood to provide for a grand,
imposing, priestly hierarchy composed of numerous
grades of incumbents distinguished from each other
by their respective titles, dignities, and assumed
prerogatives and powers, such as ecclesiastical
ambition, craft, and corruption have generated and
perpetuated in the church from near the beginning
to the present day ; but for a ministry substantially
like that indicated in the New Testament ; circum-
spect, exemplary, sympathetic, well trained in the
Scriptures and in all divine knowledge, apt to
teach the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God, and efficient in turning men from the error
of their ways and in helping them to lead the
Christian life ; a ministry like that described by
the poet Cowper:

" Simple, grave, sincere ;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain
And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture ; much impressed
Themselves, as conscious of their sacred charge
And anxious mainly that the flock they feed
May feel it too; affectionate in look,
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men."

260 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Such a ministry will be quite unlike the clergy
of the medieval church which was characterized by
inordinate personal pride, ecclesiastical arrogance,
tyrannical exercise of authority and power, and not
infrequently by immorality and guilt, and which was
a primal cause of the early degeneracy of the
church and of the wide-spread and long-continued
corruption that prevailed within its borders. It
will be a ministry of instruction, contributing to
the edification of those who wait upon it; of help-
fulness, ready to assist in all possible ways, needy,
and struggling souls, — ready to sympathize with
the friendless, to feed the hungry, to clothe the
naked, to strengthen the weak, to comfort the sor-
rowing, to breathe hope into the heart of the
despondent, to point those nearing the verge of
time to the fairer fields and the brighter skies of
the immortal world, and to renew, if possible, the
life of the wayward and sinful into the image of
Christ; a ministry of inspiration, arousing in the
human heart a sense of responsibility, a purpose
to live divinely, a trust whose sustaining, soothing^
cheering power is the deep sweet peace of God.
Such a ministry the regenerate church will need ;
such a ministry substantially it will have ; and
under such a ministry the flock of the good
Shepherd will be nourished in all heavenly graces
and powers, the church will prosper as never in
all its history before, the divine kingdom will be
rapidly built up, and God will be glorified. Amen:
so let it be.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 261

4. " There should be some duly appointed official
servants to judiciously care for the various interests
of the church and execute its various activities."

Every church, whatever its distinctive form of
organization or administrative policy, will neces-
sarily have interests to be guarded and activities
to be directed which cannot be left to the action
of the members indiscriminately or eii tnasse^ but
must be specially assigned to specially chosen
agents or they will suffer detriment and fail of
the good they represent and are designed to pro-
mote. No machinery runs itself or works to any
desirable purpose when subject to no intelligent
oversight or management. Ecclesiastical machinery
is like all other kinds in this respect. It must
have enlightened, prudent, responsible superintend-
ence or it will not simply avail nothing in promot-
ing the objects of church life but work mischief,
defeating what it should achieve. Hence the wis-
dom and necessity of having appropriately desig-
nated official servants to attend to certain prescribed
duties and to be held to account for the faithful
and satisfactory discharge of the trust reposed in
them. So far as we know the only such servants
in the apostolic church were what were called
deacons and deaconesses, whose business it was to
care for the poor and sick and have charge of
general charity work, though ere long other respon-
sibilities were added to these.

Still later church officers were increased. There
were sub-deacons, lectores, or readers of the Script-
ures ; aeolyths, who assisted the bishops in their

262 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

work; exorcists, who had the power of healing
certain diseases ; ostiarii, who had charge of places
of worship, arranged for religious services, etc.
As time has gone on the servants of the church
have been multiplied, to meet some real or supposed
need, or, as in political life, to gratify self-seeking
aspirants' desire for some position of honor, ease,
or high repute. In these days, when the church
has taken up so many lines of work previously
unthought of, the necessity for an additional num-
ber of officers to have charge of the new activities
is obvious. And this will continue in days to
come when the sphere of church life shall be so much
enlarged as to include a multitude of agencies for
the application of Christian principles to the more
general social affairs of men. The matter is one
of practical wisdom, of how to meet the growing
exigencies of the religious world, of how to do the
work that the church of the better era will be
required to do. There is no other rational, effectual,
way than to put its various departments into the
charge of competent, reliable persons and then to
hold them responsible for the faithful discharge of
the trust confided to them.

5. ** There should be some clearly expressed and^
easily understood rules of wholesome discipline."

In other words the church should have the right
and the acknowledged power of preserving the
integrity and purity of its own membership. Other-
wise the very ends of its existence would be in
danger of being subverted or its power for good
be seriously impaired by the prevalence within its

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 263^

pale of disorderliness and immorality. How often
has the church in the past suffered reproach and
lost influence by having in its organic fellowship
self-seeking, worldly-minded, perhaps vicious men
and women, whom it would not or could not dis-
lodge, but who, like barnacles clinging to the sides
of a ship, were only sources of delay and danger
to the cause whose interests were involved.

But rules of discipline should be few, simple,
just, efficacious, and pertain to matters of vital
importance. Ordinary shortcomings, venial offences,
errors and misdemeanors incidental to the imperfection
of human nature, should be reproved and rebuked
indeed, in proper time and place, but in a kindly,
forgiving spirit, and with the hope that they will
be outgrown or overcome, especially if they be
accompanied with regret and penitence on the part
of the guilty ones. And even long forbearance and
an indisposition to judge harshly or condemn pre-
maturely, a willingness to forgive "seventy times
seven " times, in the spirit of the Master, are most
worthy and commendable. But there is a point
beyond which tolerance and concession would be
blameworthy and treachery to the cause of truth
and righteousness as well as perilous to the char-
acter, reputation, and moral power of the church
itself. Open disloyalty to the Christian name and
confession, persistent violations of the law of love
to God and man and of the plain precepts of the
Master, determined, obstinate unwillingness to hear
reproof, to forsake the wrong and to follow the
right way, or a stolid indifference to the claims of

254 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

virtue and righteousness, should, after repeated and
unavailing endeavors to effect a change of mind
and heart and to restore the offender in the spirit
of meekness, be firmly but honestly testified against
and prevented from working mischief, by withdrawal
of fellowship and discharge from the acknowledged
bonds and obligations of unity and co operation.
And this is to be done on the part of the church
"more in sorrow than in anger" and with no
inclination or desire to persecute or harm the sub-
ject of exclusion and disfellowship. All must be
done in the spirit of love and good will, or it is
itself a violation of the law of Christ and an
offence against God. But it must be done in
extreme cases ; healthful discipline according to
clearly expressed and easily understood rules must
be maintained in all cases requiring it, or the
church will suffer irretrievable moral deterioration
and loss of power to uplift and save the world.

6. ''There should be some provision for the
revising and amending of the constitution and
established rules of the church."

The details of revision and amendment can not
in the nature of things be specified, dependent as
they are upon ever-changing conditions and circum-
stances of church life and upon the increasing needs
of both the church and the world ; but the privilege
and duty of arranging them are of vital importance.
And for two indisputable reasons. Because the
genius of Christianity is one of evolution, progress,
and ever fresh adaption to human necessities. This
is clearly set forth in the writings of the Evangel-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 255

ists and Apostles as it is in the history of ,the
church. Because the absolute truth of the religion
of Christ, must be apprehended, stated, and made
operative in the world by fallible men ; men more
or less imperfect, but who are learning more and
more of truth and of its requirements from genera-
tion to generation and from age to age, and
who must not be prevented from using their
increased wisdom for the good of the church and
of humanity by an iron-bound, inflexible form of
government, or policy of administration. A church
that makes no provision like that under notice,
which does not contemplate or anticipate growth,
changed conditions, increase of wisdom, new oppor-
tunities or occasions for promoting the kingdom of
God, is quite likely to become crystalized, stereo-
typed, fettered by tradition or worn-out methods —
to lose the power of self-development and therewith
the power to move and uplift the world. Hence
the desirableness and the necessity for this sixth
article of the section of my Statement of Faith
which relates to the proper organization and admin-
istration of church affairs.

I am aware that very decided objections are
likely to be urged against the positions I have
taken and attempted to maintain in this discourse ;
objections of two kinds, coming from two different
sources as they will, and yet from sources in a
general way worthy of respectful, candid considera-
tion, which induces me to give a little time and
space to each of them in its turn.

256 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I. On the one hand it will be claimed that I
am making altogether too much of the matter of
organization ; laying far too much stress upon ways
and means of operation, and so losing sight of the
essential thing in this whole discussion, or, at least
greatly belittling it, to wit: the generating of the
Christlike spirit among men. It will be said by
some excellent people that he is a Christian who
is animated by a Christly spirit and who leads a
Christly life, without any regard to constitutions,
creeds, church membership, a professional ministry*
or anything of the sort, and that therefore these
are either of no essential importance, or, if at all
allowable, the less there is of them the better.
Now I am not inclined to deny or question the
primary factor of this proposition, but I do question
and venture to deny the conclusion inferentially
drawn from it. The reasoning seems to me utterly
fallacious and deceptive. There are good scholars
who have never shared the advantages of schools^
colleges, etc. Shall we therefore, demolish or
undervalue all our educational institutions and set
at nought the curriculum of study and discipline
which they represent and employ in carrying
forward their work ? The objection ignores what
may be termed the social power in humanity ; the
fact that in all movements affecting the welfare
and happiness of considerable numbers of people,
"union is strength"; the fact that in the progress
of the world all great reforms, awakenings, uplifts,
have had their standard-bearers, their leaders and
champions, their distinguishing principles, ideas.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 5i57

objects ; and the fact that as the adherents of
such reforms, etc. have been wisely associated,
have had their forces well-marshalled, well-disci-
plined, well-directed, so has been their efficiency
and ultimate success in accomplishing the work
they have undertaken. The question in debate is
not whether a man can live an honest, reverent,
Christian life without Christ or the Christian con-
fession, without religious association, church organi-
zation and discipline, etc., but whether or not the
masses will do so, can be made to do so without
the appliances and helps which the church in its
organic character supplies ; whether or not Chris-
tianity can be made a great working force in the
world and go forward to the accomplishment of its
divine mission without that organic system of affiilia-
tion, co-operation, and administration which I have
endeavored to outline or suggest in this discourse.
I take issue with my objectors on this question and
cannot doubt that I am in the right. Moreover, I
am confident that my view is in happy accord with
the teaching and practice of the primitive church
as recorded in the New Testament.

2. Still more emphatic objections to my posi-
tions will probably come from the opposite direction.
Excellent people of a different type will deem me
latitudinarian and lax in my proposed ways and
methods of organized activity. Latitudinarian and
lax I shall be charged with being in regard to the
very nature of the church as a voluntary organiza-
tion and not a divinely appointed institution ; in
regard to the ministry, as a body of teachers,.

258 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

guides, helpers in the way of Christian living
and not a hierarchy clothed with special authority
and power ; in regard to church membership,
creeds, doctrines, ceremonies, ordinances, fellow-
ship, discipline, etc. All this I expect but do
not shrink from the ordeal. My appeal is '' to the
law and to the testimony," and at that tribunal I
am sure of justification and approval. And I am
no less sure that my conclusions cannot be invali-
dated at the court of rational inquiry. As I have dis-
cussed at length the numerous points involved and
deemed exceptionable in Vol. II of this work, I
need not go over the ground again at this time,
but only remark that to give any of them the
importance which these objectors claim for them
would be to put the non-essential in place of the
essential, make the conditional of equal importance
with the absolute, thus compounding moral values,
ministering to narrow conceptions of religious truth
and duty, and disqualifying the church for the grand
work of emancipating the human mind from all
error and superstitution and of bringing men into
that larger, nobler, more perfect life of which Jesus
of Nazareth is the type and example.

In meeting the objections referred to on the one
hand and the other I do not depreciate individual
excellence and worth in any instance under what-
soever conditions produced, nor deny the use of
any means or methods which help to bring men in
. any age into submission to Christ and his law of
love to God and man. I only seek to bring order
out of the confusion of bygone times, exalt what

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 259

is indispensable to Christlikeness above all incidental
and subordinate auxiliaries thereto, relieve the
church of all needless conventionalism or ecclesias.
tical equipage, that it may go forth free and unen-
cumbered to new victories on the battle-field of
truth and to grander achievements than ever before
for the cause of the kingdom of God and His
righteousness.

DISCOURSE XVI.

ADMINISTBATIVE POLICY OF THE TRUE CHUBCH,

" As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the
same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace
of God." — I Pet. iv. lo.

"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; there
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all." — i Cor. xii. 4-6.

"Let all things be done decently and in order." — i Cor,
xiv. 40.

The seventh and last section of what I am pleased
to denominate the absolute essentials of a true
church relates to means and methods of carrying
forward its distinctive work ; or in other words its
Administrative Policy. It contains six articles which
I deem worthy of special exposition and comment,
as is made to appear in the present Discourse; the
already formulated order of sequence being observed.

I. ''Members of the true church of Christ should
hold frequent, regular, well-ordered meetings or con-
vocations for mutual edification, religious service,
and other purposes conducive of the nurture and
growth of the divine life in their own souls and of
the moral and spiritual improvement of society at
large."

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 261

A church conscious of its divinely appointed mis-
sion in the world and of its corresponding respon-
sibilities will not be an indifferent, slumbering, inert
body, but wide-awake, earnest, and diligent in every
good word and work ; careful and determined, like the
Master, *' to be about the Father's business." It
has a broad sphere of action in which to operate,
and a great multitude and variety of duties to per-
form. Many of its affairs, dependent largely upon
time, place, and prevailing circumstances, as well as
specific means and methods of work, may and must
be left to the judicious, conscientious discretion of
its members for the time being, as questions of prac-
tical moment arise. But there are certain things
so essential to true church life and usefulness as
to be of permanent obligation, requiring consti-
tutional or organic recognition and enjoinment.
Among the most important of these is the custom
of holding frequent, regular, properly arranged and
governed assemblings together for distinctly reli-
gious purposes ; for exercises of devotion, for the
quickening of the spiritual energies, for mutual
counsel, exhortation, and fellowship, for fraternal
admonition and discipline, for definite instruction
concerning the truth in all things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. Without such gatherings as these
held at brief intervals, as often certainly as once a
week, maintained and attended with scrupulous fidel-
ity from year to year and from generation to gen-
eration, any church, however high and holy the
plane it may at any period of its history have
occupied, will decline in vigor and usefulness, and

262 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

lose its power of good in the community where it
is located and in the world ; personal virtue and
piety among its members will degenerate and private
and public demoralization will ultimately ensue.
This is no matter of theoretical speculation, born
of undue, irrational devotion to religious ideas and
institutions, but of indisputable fact, as shown and
abundantly testified to in the history of churches
and of the world for hundreds and thousands of
years. The vital importance of the activities under
notice was understood and made serviceable by the
early disciples, was urged by apostolic teaching and
example, and is worthy of profound and never to
be forgotten consideration.

In due proportion and for corresponding reasons
must there be frequent or at least occasional and
wisely planned gatherings for social converse and
the extension of the boundaries of friendly interest,
personal contact, and kindly feeling, as also for
intellectual improvement and the broadening of the
field of human investigation, thought, and knowl-
edge in the vast realm of being. Works of charity
and beneficence, ministrations to the needy and suf-
fering, reforms in social and civil life, the promul-
gation of divine truth and the dissemination of
principles of righteousness, missionary efforts of
whatever kind or name, at home or in foreign
lands — all these must be devised, provided for,
and maintained, kept in vigorous and efficient
activity, supplied with needed resources and
withal carried on under an intelligent and compre-
hensive supervision ; and this can be done only by

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 263

the agency of meetings of frequent occurrence, at
which all matters pertaining thereto can be pre-
sented, discussed, thoroughly considered, and hence
wisely determined. And even the more secular
affairs of a church, its financial interests and tech-
nically business operations, require regular, well-
ordered though more infrequent gatherings for
proper, intelligent, wise oversight and administra-
tion. Much mischief follows from careless indiffer-
ence and neglect in respect to these more external
and worldly concerns pertaining to church life.

A word of caution may be needed lest that meet-
ings and meeting-going, the assemblings of numbers,
the formalities and exercises of religion, times and
seasons of ecclesiastical observance, important as
they are and essential to the highest prosperity
and welfare of a church and of those connected
with it, deserving recognition in its fundamental
law, be made to assume too high and commanding
a place in the thought and conduct of those con-
cerned, being employed as a substitute for right
living, for love of God and man, for Christlikeness ;
an atonement for overt sin or for neglect of those
duties and obligations which are imposed upon all
moral beings by the divine moral law and which
distinguish true saintship in the calendar of heaven.
To do this would be calamitous indeed, working
immense harm to the church and to the cause of
the great Nazarene.

2. '* The ministry of the true church should
commend itself to the laity and to the world at
large by its intellectual competency, its high

264 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

spirituality and consecration to its work, its exem-
plary character and conduct, and its efficiency in
prosecuting its holy mission."

In the very nature of things and as a necessary
adjunct of their office, the ministry of the church
must exert a predominating influence over those
with whom they labor and exercise extraordinary
power in the administration of the ecclesiastical
polity. Their proper business is to lead and not
follow their people in piety, virtue, and good works ;
not to live upon them but for them ; not to be
served by them, but to serve them in all holy and
divine things. They are to perform the duties of
their position, not as lords and masters, but as
fellow-laborers for Jesus' sake and for the common
welfare; not exercising dominion over their faith
but acting as helpers of their joy. They must not
be mere professionals, taking up their work as a
business transaction, a worldly calling or craft
whereby to secure a living or some sort of
temporal advantage, but spiritually-minded, con-
secrated men and women. Christian by conviction
and consciously called of God to the duties they
have assumed to discharge.

They must moreover be intellectually competent ;
not necessarily learned in the curriculum of the
schools or of the universities, but well-instructed in
the thesis of a sound moral philosophy, in the princi-
ples of Christian truth and righteousness, in the
word of God, in the powers and possibilities of
the human soul and its immortal needs, and in the
ways and means by which wanderers from the way

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 265

■of life may be reclaimed and brought back to that
ever-ascending path which shines brighter and
brighter unto the perfect day. Of mental vigor,
•of deep thought, of rich experience in the things
of the kingdom must they be who stand on the
towers of Zion, amply qualified to teach the eternal
realities, to move, uplift, comfort, and strengthen
the human heart, to reach and rescue imperiled
souls and to make of the waste places of the earth
sanctuaries of the living God.

Life quickens life in our human world, and there
is no greater power for good among men than that
of a pure, true, brave, strong, high-minded, divinely
inspired personality, like that of Jesus, out of whom
virtue went to awaken virtue in the hearts of the
sin-smitten sons and daughters of men. Therefore
must the approved ministry of the future church
be exemplary in their character and conduct, in
thought, word, and deed, in all the graces and
excellences of the Christian life, illustrating in
themselves, in their daily walk and conversation,
the truth they inculcate, the virtue they commend,
the love to God and man they enjoin as the sum
and substance of the Gospel of Christ.

The true ministry must also be efficient in their
work, proving themselves by their diligence, ear-
nestness, courage, singleness of purpose, sound
judgment, wisdom, power to reach the human heart
and to turn men from darkness unto light and from
sin unto holiness, good soldiers of Jesus Christ,
skillful laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.

266 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

In these several particulars I have indicated the
required character of the ministry of the true Chris-
tian church — the constant aim and purpose which
they should each and all set before them as the
mark of the prize of their high calling, unto which
they should, in some good degree, have themselves
attained — what, with due allowance for human
imperfection and incidental errors or mistakes, the
laity should peremptorily demand of those who
claim a right to serve at, the altar of Christian
faith and profess to have committed to their keep-
ing as a sacred trust the care and cure of souls.
Such a ministry will in large measure realize to
themselves and to the church and the world the
grand ideal portrayed in the letters of the great
Apostle Paul to Timothy, his " son in the faith "
and his fellow-laborer in the work of extending the
Gospel through Gentile lands and in evangelizing
the world.

3. "There should be hearty and constant co-
operation of ministers, subordinate officers, and
members generally in the endeavor to promote the
prosperity of the church, the betterment of human-
ity, and the extension of the domain of truth and
righteousness throughout the earth."

This proposition is so manifestly true in itself
considered and so obviously vital to the prosperity
and usefulness of the church that it requires little
elucidation or defence. Anything like discord,
alienation of feeling, personal animosity, factional
bitterness and strife, must be disallowed and kept
forever in abeyance or disastrous consequences

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 267

ensue, both to the church itself and to the cause
for which it stands and for the promotion of which
it was established and given a place in the divine
order of the world. Nothing in the history of
Christianity from the beginning has stained its fair
fame, wrought harm to the vast interests it has in
charge, made it the object of reprobation, satire,
and contempt on the part of its foes, or shorn it
of uplifting and redeeming power, so much as the
inharmony, dissension, wrangling, contentiousness,
open rupture and warfare that have prevailed under
more or less obnoxious forms, within the bound-
aries and among the votaries of the church. And
all this in utter recreancy to and practical con-
tempt of the essential spirit of the Gospel, the
plainest teachings of the Master and of his early
messengers of truth and grace to mankind. Even
careless indifference or indisposition to work with
each other for laudable and important objects is
detrimental to the common welfare and hence
reprehensible. Unity, harmony, mutual sympathy
and helpfulness, concert of effort, these are essen-
tial to true ecclesiastical order and the efficient
administration of church affairs, under whatsoever
circumstances and at all periods of time. " That
they all may be one" was the last prayer of Jesus.
Not one in thought, in opinion, in judgment ; that
were impossible in the very nature of things ; — but
one in spirit, in purpose, in efforts to overcome the
sin and sorrow of the world and brine: in the kinof-
dom of God ; that is possible, and not only possible
but obligatory upon the true followers of Jesus. **Let

268 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

your conversation," that is, your behavior, your
■whole course of life, said the author of the epistle
to the Philippians, "be as becometh the gospel of
Christ * * * that ye stand fast in one spirit, with
one mind, striving together for the faith of the
gospel." This is wholesome doctrine upon the
matter under notice and worthy of universal applica-
tion in the church.

4. ''Wholesome discipline and good order in all
departments of church life should be sedulously
maintained."

The indispensable importance of definite, well-
'understood rules of order and discipline has been
sufficiently explained and defended in a previous
sermon and need not be reconsidered. But rules
-are not self-executive and are of little value unless
they are conscientiously and faithfully regarded.
So far as they relate to methods of operation, to
the more external affairs of the church, indiffer-
ence to or neglect of them leads to confusion,
thriftlessness, and inefficiency, and gives occasion
for distrust, suspicion, recrimination, and many
kindred ills. So far as they relate to the character
and conduct of members, their observance is essen-
tial to the purity and efficiency of membership, to
harmony and real fellowship, and to hearty and
•cordial co-operation for the accomplishment of the
great objects for which the church exists. "How
can two walk together except they be agreed" upon
the great fundamentals of truth and duty .'^ Oil
and water will not mix, nor can incongruous ele-
ments in any associative body so combine as to act

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 269-

freely and harmoniously with each other to common
ends. There must be in a true church some stand-
ard of admission, some way of preventing the
incoming of unworthy or discordant elements, some
way of relieving the body of such as perchance
may have gained an entrance therein. Otherwise
there will be moral and social confusion and mis-
rule, disloyalty to the high standard of a true-
church and to Christ. But this order and discipline
is to be exercised and maintained impartially and
justly, yet kindly and beneficiently *' in charity ta
all and with malice towards none."

5. "There should be uncompromising fidelity ta
acknowledged essentials on the part of all members,,
while perfect liberty is allowed in all other respects."

This article cannot be too earnestly, candidly, or
thoroughly pondered and treasured in the heart.
It makes a broad and notable distinction between the
essentials and non-essentials in religion ; between
what is inherently vital to piety and virtue, intrinsic
in Christianity and what is incidental thereto ;.
between the glorious structure of a consummate man-
hood and womanhood in Christ Jesus and the scaffold-
ing— the means, methods, helps, by which that
structure is reared. The essentials, as I specify
them, are based upon divine principles, are an
expression of the everlasting truth of things and
hence inviolable and forever obligatory ; cannot be
disregarded or set at naught without impinging
upon the eternal divine order, without open disloy-
alty to God. While the non-essentials, as I term
them, have no such firm and imperishable bases>

270 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Stand in no such indefeasable relation to eternal
realities, but are incidental and contingent thereto
and so of secondary importance and value ; their
validity and worth depending upon time, place, cir-
cumstance, general or special utility and a great
variety of adventitious considerations. The article
in review implies that every essential represents
some great principle or first truth of the moral and
spiritual world ; such as the being of God, the
supremacy of the divine law of righteousness, the
ruinous nature of sin, the fact of retribution,
the idea of immortality, etc., and requires that
these be insisted upon and regarded without quali-
fication or compromise. It also implies that there
are certain exercises, privileges, duties, customs,
etc., which have no such bases or original claim
upon men, but whose validity and obligatoriness
rest upon their fitness and competency to serve
human need and welfare, to promote virtue and
holiness in the souls of men, to further the cause
of truth and right in the world, to aid in carrying
the plans of God forward to their consummation.
Among these non-essentials are forms of organiza-
tion, methods of action, special objects of effort,
rites, ordinances, times and places of worship, and
everything of a like nature and use.

Now my contention and what this article main-
tains is that each and every church built upon
sure foundations, Christ himself being the chief
corner-stone, must and will recognize and definitely
affirm certain great fundamental ideas or truths of
the Christian religion and steadfastly uphold and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 271

abide by them with unfaltering fidelity under all
possible conditions and circumstances ; but that in
everything else pertaining to ecclesiastical concerns,
in the way of organization, administration, or action,
there shall be the most perfect liberty of thought,
feeling, opinion, judgment, and conduct. And this
liberty itself is to be regarded as an essential of
equal importance and obligation with any and all
others that may be incorporated into the creed or
platform of any church. None of the recognized
non-essentials are to be condemned as evil per se^
nor proscribed as useless, nor treated with irrev-
erence or contempt, but left to stand or fall upon
their own merits, as determined by the free choice
and judgment of individual members or of the
whole body of the church. And no one is to be
impugned in motive or in loyalty to Christ, con-
demned or anathematized for maintaining his own
liberty of thought and action upon these matters,
against the individual or combined judgment of his
fellow-members in the church. This article relieves
those who adopt it from the burden of antiquated
and barren dogmas and speculations, holds them
fast in their allegiance to the eternal verities, and
secures to them " the liberty wherewith Christ
maketh free."

6. " Due regard should be paid to gradation of
discipleship and to the successive steps of Christian
progress from the youngest child and least advanced
convert to the loftiest and most noble saint ; great
care, however, being taken never to lower the
standard of pure practical Christianity."

272 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Two very important duties are acknowledged and
enjoined in this declaration. The first relates to
the law of growth in the Christian life and to the
institution of adequate means and methods of pro-
moting it. Christian discipleship is not born full-
grown and perfect but infantile and weak, to be
developed and matured by successive processes of
instruction, nurture, and regenerative transforma-
tion along lines of ever-ascending progress towards
perfection. And these processes are to be pro-
vided for and carried forward under church super-
vision and as a part of its established administrative
policy. The church is in important respects a
school for the training and culture of men, women,
and children in truth, righteousness, and holy
living — for the development of character in those
who share its privileges and advantages according
to the pattern outlined and exhibited in the New
Testament. Its works in this department of it
begins with the children and youth over whom it
has care, or with persons of maturer years ani-
mated by selfish, worldly, sinful motives and ambi-
tions, both of which classes are alike ignorant of the
first principles of the oracles of God and unmind-
ful of what pertains to the higher and diviner
life of the soul, placing them under influences and
tuitions suited to their needs, implanting in the
susceptible and willing soil of their hearts the seed
of the kingdom, and watching its germination and
early unfolding with unfaltering solicitude and care.
By agencies wisely adapted to the development of
the spiritual faculties of those just starting on the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 273

upward way within its immediate jurisdiction will
the church provide for their gradual, healthful
growth in grace and the knowledge of God until
they attain to that measure of virtue and piety
which qualifies them for entrance into its full
membership and for the enjoyment of all the rights
and prerogatives belonging thereto ; thus becoming
organically " fellow-citizens with the saints and of
the household of God."

A corresponding course or system of training and
development would be instituted and operated with
respect to interested parties and converts in the
outside world and in the formation and conduct of
missionary stations wherever it might be deemed
wise to establish them. New churches could be
founded with safety and promise of success only
after such an inductive course or system had been
pursued for a sufficient time to test the fitness of
candidates for the grave responsibilities involved.
Nothing could be gained but much lost to the
church itself and to the cause of pure Christianity
by multiplying organizations and giving them the
Christian name, the membership of which was com-
posed of persons animated by the spirit of this
world and committed, in good part or wholly, to
the habits, customs, laws, institutions, and govern-
mental policies of existing society. A radical reform
of church life can be effected only by coming out
and being separate from everything that conflicts
with the spirit, principles, and precepts of the
Master.

And hence the necessity of insisting upon the
second great duty enjoined by the article under

274 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

notice, namely, "never to lower the standard of
pure, practical Christianity " ; which is for the
individual Christlikeness of spirit, conduct, and
character, and for the church in its associated
capacity, brotherhood, co-operation, a new order of
life, the kingdom of God. The temptation to depart
from this rule is very great and difficult to with-
stand. The early church could not withstand it for
a long period. And many churches of later date
starting well and running well for a season, have
at length been overcome by the seductive power
of wealth, respectability, love of applause, wordli-
ness, political ambition, martial glory, and sunk to
a common level, shorn of much of their power to
uplift and save mankind. Their salt lost its savor,
their light became dim, their strength turned to
weakness. Retaining the Christian name, the
Christian spirit, the Christian life in large measure
departed. Hence the little progress true, pure
Primitive Christianity has made in the world.
Hence the slow coming of the kingdom of God to
the earth. Let the folly, the danger, the recreancy
to duty, involved in abandoning or lowering the
standard, as illustrated in the example of the prim-
itive church and of a multitude of instances since
that date, as well as in the history of Christendom,
be a warning to all those who may in any coming
age or time seek to inaugurate and perpetuate a
regenerate church and make it worthy of its name.
Let them set their standard high and maintain it
against all the allurements of the world, against
the temptations of flesh and sense, against the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 276

flattering promises of wealth or fame or power or
earthly glory to the end, in sterling honesty, in
uncompromising fidelity, in unsullied honor, before
God and His holy angels, till the mission of the
church be fulfilledand the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.

Here I leave the exposition and defence of my
proposed platform upon which the church of the
new dispensation must in my judgment be built,
proceeding in my next Discourse to a detailed and
careful examination of the principal creeds, confes-
sions, statements of faith, etc. which have been
formulated and adopted in the past, and which are
still venerated and held authoritative in the larger
and more commanding denominations of the pro-
fessing Christian world.

DISCOURSE XVII.

EXAMINATION OF THE NICENE CREED.

"Prove all things, hold fast that which is good," — i Thess.

V. 21.

"Brethren, be not ^children in understanding; howbeit in
malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." — i Cor.
xiv. 20.

The most ancient creed or confession of faith to
be found in the annals of the nominal Christian
church was the one formulated and adopted by
what is commonly termed the first Ecumenical
Council held at Nice or Nicea, a city of Bithynia,
Asia Minor, a. d. 325. That body was convened
by order of Constantine the Great, Emperor of
Rome, soon after he became the acknowledged
head of the ecclesiastical affairs of Christendom,
for the purpose of putting an end to the so-called
Arian controversy then prevailing far and wide, and
causing much bitterness and violence even on both
sides. That purpose was fully accomplished by
establishing Athanasianism as orthodoxy or the
true faith of all believers in Christ, and banishing
Arius as a dangerous heretic to Illyria, a heathen
province on the northern borders of Greece, now
within the territory of the Austrian Empire. Of
the merits or demerits of that Council or of its

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 2T7

general doings I have no occasion to say anything
more than will be necessary in the consideration
of the system of doctrine which was there framed
and made authoritative. That system was re-affirmed
after certain assumed improvements had been made
in it by a second general Council at Constantino-
ple, A. D. 381. Thence it has come down through
intervening ages, haloed with rays of ecclesiastical
reverence and adulation, unto our own day, bearing
a name derived from the place of its inception and
well known in the religious world and in religious
literature. The full text of the document in which
it was formulated is here given.

THE NICENE CREED.

" I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in
one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. And
born of the Father, before all ages. God of God, Light
of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made; con-
substantial to the Father, by whom all things were made-
Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from
heaven. And was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the
Virgin Mary; and he was made man: was crucified
also under Pontius Pilate ; he suffered, and was buried.
And the third day he rose again, according to the Script-
ures. And he ascended into heaven. Sits at the right
hand of the Father. And he is to come again with glory to
judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall
be no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of
Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who,
together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glori-
fied; who spoke by the Prophets. And One, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolical Church. I confess one Baptism, for the
remission of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the
dead; and the life of the world to come. Amen."

278 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Analysis and Comparison.
Clause i, ** I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things
visible and invisible." This is sound doctrine, and
objectionable only on account of indefiniteness and
insufficiency of statement. It is liable to be mis-
understood in various ways ; to be given narrow,
gross, irrational, diversified, contradictory meanings.
"There is one God." To be sure; but is he alone
self-existent and strictly one .'* He is "the Father
Almighty." Certainly ; but is he the universal
Father — the Father of all mankind.'' Is almighty-
ness His only chief attribute } Is he not infinite
and all-perfect.-* as truly so and much more adora-
bly in Wisdom and Love as in Power ? Further-
more, is He an organic being, anthropomorphic in
form, but of surpassing grandeur and majesty,
inhabiting some given locality in the celestial empy-
rean, and journeying to and fro in the vast immen-
sities of space as His presence may be needed in
the providential ordering of the universe.-* Or is
He absolute and uncorruptible Spirit, pervading all
things and possessing a mental, moral, and spiritual
personality, self-conscious, active, and manifestable
in every part and at all points of creation's immeas-
urable domain } My own platform or statement of
belief has none of the defects and objectionable
characteristics thus indicated, but avoids and pre-
cludes them all. It sets forth the nature, attributes,
and perfections of Deity, and His relations to the
whole universe of being in entire harmony with
the dictates of reason, the principles of sound

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 279

philosophy, and the testimonies of Jesus and his
Apostles as recorded in the Scriptures of the New
Testament.

Clause 2. "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God." This is true, sound.
Scriptural doctrine, if properly interpreted and
understood. But as formulated is, like clause r,
obscure and liable to perversion and misapprehen-
sion. The phrase ** only-begotten Son of God,"
was regarded by the Nicene prelates in a gross,
literal sense, and has been so regarded by multi-
tudes of professed Christians unto this day; and
so regarded has been given a false meaning — a
meaning opposed to facts and to the real teaching
of the sacred word. In the New Testament sense
the term "only-begotten" expresses pre-eminence,
supremacy, the highest rank of filial relationship,
and not exclusiveness of such relationship. Thus
in the book of Hebrews, Abraham is said to have
offered up Isaac, "his only-begotten son." And
yet Abraham had Ishmael and other male children.
And Paul in his letter to the Romans tells them
that "as many as are led by the Spirit of God
they are the Sons of God." And Jesus in teaching
the universal Fatherhood of God also teaches by
necessary implication the universal sonship of man-
kind. My own statement concerning Christ as
found on page 200 affords a much truer and more
Scriptural view of the divine man, Jesus, and
presents the all-important practical character of
true faith in this great Son of God, concerning
which the Nicene creed is objectionably silent.

280 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Clause 3. " And born of the Father, before all
ages." This is either a senseless solecism or an
inexplicable scholastic enigma ; in either case having
no place in a confession of faith for the considera-
tion and acceptance of intelligent, rational beings.
** Before all ages " is a phrase that has no meaning
in a theory of existence which involves an unbegun
eternity. Or if it has a meaning as used in the
instance before us, it is that Christ was never
born at all but always existed. Whatever way the
declaration is regarded it is rhetorically, scientifi-
cally, philosophically, void of signification and
hence an inexcusable juggle of words having no
value whatever. All such statements are ruled out
of the court of honest, intelligent inquiry by my
affirmation that " Mere metaphysical abstractions,
scholastic subtleties, and cloudy mysticisms should
be excluded from all expositions or formularies of
religious truth.".

Clause 4. "God of God, Light of Light, true
God of true God, begotten not made ; consub-
stantial to the Father." Were this predicated of
the all-comprehending, communicable Divine Spirit,
sometimes called the Logos, the Holy Ghost, etc.,
wherewith the man Jesus was anointed, quickened,
and inspired to constitute him the Christ, it would
express, though in cumbersome verbalism, a grand
truth; with the exception of the phrase ''begotten,
not made" which should read "neither begotten
nor made." But the statement as it stands con-
founds the human personality with the indwelling
Father, who, according to the plain testimony of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 281

Jesus, spoke through him and wrought by him.
( See John xiv. lo.) The human and divine must
not be thus confounded, creating a mystery where
there is none and so befogging the understanding
as well as falsifying the facts in the case. But
this has been one of the great theological mistakes
of Christendom, first made by the Nicean Council
and perpetuated unto this day, corrupting the
minds of millions of sincere believers in the church,
who count it a deadly heresy to hold to the strict
humanity of Jesus and yet to the absolute Divinity
of his official Christhood.

Clause 5. *' By whom all things were made."
This clause, though having warrant in the letter
of the New Testament ( Col. i. 16.), as it appears
in the creed contradicts what has been stated
before and bewilders rather than edifies the under-
standing of men. It had been previously affirmed
that the Father Almighty was the " Maker of all
things visible and invisible." And now to declare
that all things were made by Jesus Christ as their
primal source and creator, is to make the Father
and the Son identical and undistinguishable so far
as the act of creation was concerned, a conclusion
which "the most conservative and dogmatic Trinita-
rian would not in our day accept. The Scriptures,
from which the clause in question is derived, must
be highly figurative representations of the exalted
character and office of God's dear Son, or must
refer to the divine Logos — the creative wisdom
of the universe, which, inhering in the Supreme
One, operates throughout immensity to execute

282 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

His holy will and fulfill His vast designs ; more
especially as it dwells in and actuates and works
through living souls, and most of all in and through
the great Son of man, Son of God as well. In
one or the other of these senses only can there be
any rational or Scriptural basis for the statement
under examination ; the one implied in the Nicene
pronunciamento being wholly inadmissible and
unworthy of acceptation.

Clause 6. "Who for us men, and for our salva-
tion, came down from heaven." Not from some
celestial abode or locality in the upper airs, but
from the grand realm of moral and spiritual veri-
ties, the heaven of divinely appointed agencies
and ministries for the progress and final redemp-
tion of humanity. Only in this sense can I accept
this portion of the creed in review.

Clause 7. "And was incarnated by the Holy
Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and he was made
MAN." The doctrine of incarnation by the Holy
Ghost as here set forth, or of what is usually
termed the immaculate conception, I regard as
chimerical and misleading. It is manifestly con-
trary to the laws of divine order in the procession
of the generations, as attested by human experience
in all ages of history, Moreover, I maintain that
it has no warrant even in the letter of authentic
Scripture annals. I am convinced from arguments
which I cannot reproduce here that the narratives
prefacing the real Gospels of Matthew and Luke
upon which the doctrine is based are apocryphal
and unworthy of acceptation. Furthermore, neither

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 28S

Jesus nor his Apostles, so far as the Scripture
records show, ever made any account of the doc-
trine whatever, much less taught that it was of
vital importance ; nay they did not ever mention
it as a historical fact. While the former repeat-
edly puts forth high claims to divine indwelling
power and authority, and insists on being believed
in as the Christ, he never in a single instance does
this on the ground of or with reference to any
peculiarities of conception, birth, or parentage.
Nor do any of the immediate teachers and promul-
gators of his religion. They do not so much as
allude to such an abnormal occurrence as known
to them. I cannot therefore regard it as having
any place among the essentials of a vital Christian
faith. The true doctrine of the incarnation or
indwelling in Jesus of the divine Logos, contem-
plates what was characteristic of him from the
time of his baptism, but settles nothing in regard
to his previous super-earthly endowments, whatever
they may have been, and no creed should presume
to do so. The exact measure of his Christly
endowments and authority before he began his
public ministry is of comparatively little importance;
it was what the Logos said and did through him
in its plenary manifestation that chiefly concerns
his disciples and mankind generally.

Clauses 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. "Was crucified also
under Pontius Pilate ; he suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again according to the
Scriptures. And he ascended into heaven. Sits at
the right hand of the Father. And he is to come

284 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

again with glory to judge the living and the dead ;
of whose kingdom there shall be no end." The
first three of these declarations may be assented to
as substantially true to the facts of the case, but
are not to be urged or imposed upon believers in
a dogmatic, imperious manner ; while the others*
important and valuable if rightly understood, are
-exceedingly liable to be misinterpreted and given a
false meaning. The statement that Christ sits at
the right hand of the Father may be taken in the
absurd literal sense and so made to teach that the
infinite and all-pervading God is an organic person-
ality occupying a veritable throne in some given
locality of the universe like an earthly monarch
occupying a chair of state, whence He administers
the affairs of His vast and complex government ;
and that Jesus, who is also still an actual organism,
has a place by His right hand side. Whereas, the
term, "right hand," in such a representation is to be
regarded metaphorically and spiritually, as denoting
the highest degree of honor, approbation, and glory.
Again, how has the statement **he is to come again
with glory to judge the living and the dead," been
made by a narrow, arbitrary literalism to inculcate
sundry most irrational notions and to disgrace the
pure religion of the New Testament ! Especially
has it done this in respect to what are known in
the history of the church and in general religious
literature as the doctrine of the ** Second Coming
of Christ" in person to the earth, that of the
^'General Judgment" which, it is assumed, will be
held much after the manner of earthly tribunals at

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 285

some definite date of the unknown future, and
others akin thereto. These doctrines have been
deduced with presumptuous assurance from certain
highly figurative texts of the Bible in which the
word coine or its equivalent holds a central place
and is given its common signification. Whereas it
is a word of very flexible and versatile meaning
both in its original Hebrew or Greek prototype
and in its translated form, applying alike to the
most literal, physical movement hitherward and to
the most figurative, spiritual descent of grace and
power from on high. To mistake one of these
applications for the other or to use them indiscrimi-
nately is to juggle with words and fall into lamenta-
ble error. That Christ has come to- the children
of men since he dwelt in the flesh and went about
Palestine preaching the Gospel, that he does come
today and will come in the ages ahead is to my
mind certain. But it is not in a personal, bodily
form as aforetime, but as a spiritual presence and
force, to renew the life of the world and extend
the realm of righteousness, brotherhood, peace, and
love upon the earth. The same spiritual interpre-
tation and latitude of meaning is to be given to
the additional explanatory phrase, ''to judge the
living and the dead." That is, Christ, as a repre-
sentative of the eternal Father and a revealer of
the divine truth, in his spiritual relations to man-
kind, becomes a judge to approve, honor, and
reward the good, and to blame, condemn, and pro-
nounce sentence against the evil. The principles
of God's moral government, which he proclaimed

286 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

when on earth and which he represents, constitute
the standard by which human character and con-
duct are tried in this and all worlds now and
evermore.

And so of the phrase, "of whose kingdom there
shall be no end." Very true, if by his kingdom
we understand the supremacy of those divine, eternal
principles which he enunciated and urged as the
true impregnable bases of all thought and conduct
in individual, social, and civil life, and with which
he was so closely identified. But if by his king-
dom Christ's personal rule or authority is meant,
the phrase is to be taken with considerable quali-
fication, as Paul very plainly shows when he says,
*'Then cometh the end when he (Christ) shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God even the
Father." " And when all things shall be subdued
unto him, then shall the Son also himself be sub-
ject unto him that put all things under him, that
God may be all in all. — i 'Cor. xv. 24, 28. This
statement is in my judgment far better than that
of the Nicene formula. And in this form I heartily
accept the doctrine involved.

Clauses 13, 14, 15, 16. ** And in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and Giver of Life ; who proceeds from
the Father and the Son ; who together with the
Father and the Son is adored and glorified ; who
spoke by the Prophets." These clauses I group
together as I did the preceding five because they
are closely related to each other, treating as they
do of one common subject, the Holy Ghost. As
they stand and as they were intended to be under-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 287

stood by the Nicene fathers, the doctrine they
embody is neither Scriptural, rational, or true. It
assumes that the Holy Ghost is absolutely a Divine
Person, co-ordinate with the Father and the Son,
the Lord and Giver of Life, to be adored and
glorified accordingly. But there is not a single
passage in the Bible which thus describes what is
termed the Holy Ghost. It is uniformly repre.
sented as the outflowing divine spirit — a manifesta-
tion or communicable part of God Himself, whereby
He becomes a conscious living presence in the soul
of man and in human life. It carries with it to be
sure a certain sort of mental and moral personality,
but it is a derived, subordinate personality, not an
aboriginal, independent one. The Holy Ghost is
never in the Scriptures regarded as wholly separa-
ble from God, the Father, nor yet as co-equal with
Him in originating or creating any thing. It is
simply an emanation from God, His manifestive
agency in the administration of the affairs of the
spiritual universe — in informing, inspiring, and
qualifying for their appointed work. Prophet, Apos-
tle, and even Christ himself. Abundant Scripture
quotations might be transferred to these pages in
support of this view, but space will not allow. Nor
is it necessary with intelligent readers of the Old
and New Testaments.

Clause 17. "And one Holy Catholic and Apos-
tolical Church." Whatever truth there may be in
an abstract, spiritual sense in this dictum it is in no
wise an essential element of New Testament faith.
As it stands in the creed and has been held by

288 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the devotees of that creed it is a sheer ecclesiastical
assumption, fruitful of bigotry, schism, religious
warfare and persecution. The claim made for it is
unreasonable and preposterous. There is a sense
in which there is one holy, catholic. Apostolic
church : a body composed of those of all beliefs,
in all lands, throughout all ages, who, under the
leadership of Jesus, cherish his spirit, share his
fellowship, do his work, and build up his kingdom
in the world. But it is not to this church that
the creedmakers of Nice and their followers refer, and
their declaration merits only denial and refutation on
the part of all true disciples of the Nazarene.

Clause 1 8. "I confess one baptism for the remis-
sion of sins." As interpreted by the exposition of
the Nicene confession this teaches peremptorily that
water baptism puts away a person's sins and renders
him regenerate. This is not New Testament doc-
trine at all. John the forerunner of Christ indicated
the true view of baptism when he said, " I indeed
baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost." And Peter sets the matter of
water baptism in its true light when he declares
its use to be " not the putting away of the filth
of the fiesh but the answer of a good conscience
towards God." The plain testimony of the great
teacher as well as that of Paul and other New
Testament authors is that regeneration is effected
only by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Water
baptism is at best but a sign or symbol of inward
purification, but it is often only a sign with no
reality behind it.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 289

Clauses 19, 20. "And I look for the resurrection
of the dead and the life of the world to come."
There is nothing intrinsically objectionable in this
complex statement of the doctrine of Immortality,
save perhaps its general indefiniteness and conse-
quent liability to provoke interminable speculation
on the nature of the resurrection of the dead and
the conditions and characteristics of life in the
world to come, which my own manifesto, hereto-
fore given, in large measure precludes by its greater
precision and completeness. (See page 184.)

I have thus concluded my analysis of the Nicene
confession of faith, comparing it in certain respects
with my own, and am content to submit the result
to the considerate judgment of those interested in
the great questions of Christian life who may come
after me. In my next discourse I shall examine
other formularies of doctrine which have been held
in high regard in certain branches of the church
during many centuries of its history. Meantime
may the Holy Spirit of truth enlighten us and
guide us into all truth ; yea and forevermore.

DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE APOSTLES' AND ATHANASIAN CBEED8;
ANALYZED AND COMPABED.

" Now we have received not the spirit of the world but
the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things
that are freely given us of God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual things
with spiritual," — i Cor. ii. 12, 13.

The Apostles' Creed, so named, which I am to
notice first in this discourse, is of uncertain origin
and date. Next to that of Nicea, already con-
sidered, it is, without much doubt, the oldest
formulated statement of belief known to Christen-
dom. For many centuries it was supposed to
antedate the Nicene confession, adopted in the year
325, being deemed the production of those early
promulgators of the Gospel whose name it bears,
each of whom was said to have contributed one of
its clauses. " Very likely its author was willing it
should be thus regarded, as were multitudes of
church dignitaries and their blind satellites after
him. ''All, however," says Mosheim, "who have
the least knowledge of antiquity look upon this
opinion as entirely false and destitute of all founda-
tion." ''There is much reason and judgment," he
adds, " in the opinion of those who think this creed
was not all composed at once, but from small begin-

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 291

nings was imperceptibly augmented in proportion
to the growth of heresy, and according to the
exigencies and circumstances of the church, from
whence it was designed to banish the errors that
daily arose."

But from whatever source or period of history it
originated it did not appear in ecclesiastical annals
until the latter part of the fourth century, and was
not admitted to general use in the church, accord,
ing to usually received authorities, for a century or
more afterwards. It had then assumed the form
in which it long held an important place in the
Roman Catholic communion, as it also has in the
Episcopalian system of faith, and in which it is best
known to the religious world. It reads as follows: —

THE APOSTLES' CREED.

" I believe in God the Father ahnighty, Creator of heaven
and earth ; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell ; the third day he rose again from the
dead; he ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of
God the Father almighty ; from thence he shall come to judge
the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the
holy Catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgive-
ness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and life ever-
lasting. Amen.

REMARKS.

This creed differs so little from the one framed
at Nicea that most of my analytical and com-
parative comments upon that are applicable to the
one now under examination. Of the two the

292 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

present one is least objectionable ; but it is aston-
ishing to see how even this magnifies unimportant
items of doctrine, asserts questionable dogmas,
abbreviates essential principles or ideas, and omits
everything in the department of personal and social
righteousness ; as if the eternal principles of duty
were not as fundamental to true Christian faith as
scholastic theological propositions, and much more
so than several of the specified facts of Gospel
history. But in this last respect all the ancient
and most of the later statements of belief are
strikingly alike.

There are however three noteworthy particulars
in the Apostle's Creed that are not found in the
Nicene confession, viz.: Christ's descent into hell,
the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of
sins ; though possibly the last of these may have
been implied in the doctrine of "one baptism for
the remission of sins." As to the first of these
three propositions or statements, I may frankly con-
fess that I believe on the testimony of Peter and
Paul that Jesus, in the prosecution of his media-
torial mission, ** went and preached to the spirits
in prison ; " that is, entered Hades and carried on
his saving work among the disobedient and unholy
ones there ; and that I regard the fact important
in its place, as I do the fact of his baptism, or
temptation, or transfiguration ; but I see no neces-
sity or propriety in ranking any of these incidents
of his experience as essential to a religious system,
or in giving them a place among the prescribed
articles of Christian faith.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 293

I believe also in "the communion of saints;" that
is, in the spiritual oneness ' and fellowship, the
sympathy and co-operation of all Christlike souls
wheresoever and whensoever existing; but I cannot
regard the matter of sufficient importance in the work
of human redemption or in the proper organization
and administration of a Christian church to make
formal mention of it in the covenanted platform or
constitution of such a church. And I would say
the same in regard to the doctrine of "the forgive-
ness of sins." It is sublimely true, but not vital
to character, nor fundamental to church loyalty,
efficiency, and success. Were these truths, as I
hold them to be, denied or contemptuously treated,
I should contend for them most earnestly as I
understand them to be set forth in the Scriptures
and as they seem to me to enter into the moral
frame-work of the world. And I grant that they
have relations and bearings in respect to the divine
government and to the virtue, holiness, and happi-
ness of mankind which might render it highly
expedient, and even a sacred duty under some
circumstances, for the church to make some
affirmatory declaration concerning them or bear its
testimony against the rejection or disparagement
of them as morally wrong, mischievous, and
reprehensible. Farther than this in support or in
exaltation of them I could not in reason or good
conscience go.

With these brief observations upon the Apostles'
creed I pass to a more elaborate examination of
what is known in ecclesiastical history as

294 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The Athanasian Creed.

This, beyond all question, is a masterly produc-
tion, and worthy of the genius of the celebrated
patriarch and polemic whose name it bears. Yet
well-informed ecclesiastical historians, do not ac-
cord it to Athanasius himself, but to one of his
most intellectual, acute, subtle, profound disciples,
unknown in the annals of the church. Some sec-
tarian zealots have claimed that it was drawn up
as early as the fourth century but without the least
shadow of authority. Notices of it appeared in
the seventh century, but it seems to have gained
little foothold in the church before the tenth and
perhaps not till the eleventh century. It first came
into favor , in France, extending thence ere long
throughout Western Europe and finally to all parts
of Christendom. It is an accepted formulary of
faith in the Roman and Greek churches, and in
the church of England it is regarded as of equal
authoritv with the Apostles' and Nicene statements,
being repeated in due form at certain designated
festivals. It is the most dogmatic, uncompromis-
ing, assumptive, and metaphysically recondite of
all creeds, ancient and modern alike, as the tran-
scription of it in these pages will show. Let the
interested inquirer read and ponder it with thought-
ful, discriminating care. It is as follows : —

" Whoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary
that he hold the Catholic faith.

" Which faith except every one do keep entire and invio-
late, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 295

'* Now the Catholic faith is this — that we worship one
God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.

"Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the. sub-
stance.

" For one is the person of the Father, another of the
Son, another of the Holy Ghost.

"But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

" Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the
Holy Ghost.

" The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the
Holy Ghost is uncreated.

"The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

" The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy
Ghost eternal.

" And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.

" As also they are not three uncreated, nor three incom-
prehensibles ; but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

" In like manner, the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty,
and the Holy Ghost Almighty.

"And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

" So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy
Ghost is God.

" And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

"So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the
Holy Ghost is Lord.

"And yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.

" For, as we are compelled by the Christian truth to
acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord,
so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there
are three Gods or three Lords.

"The Father is made of no one, neither created nor
begotten.

" The Son is from the Father alone, not made, nor
created, but begotten.

" The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not
made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

296 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

" So there is one Father, not three Fathers ; one Son, not
three Sons ; one Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts.

" And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after,
nothing greater or less ; but the whole three persons are
co-eternal to one another and co-equal.

" So that in all things, as has been already said above,
the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity, and the Trinity in
Unity.

" He, therefore, that will be saved, must thus think of the
Trinity.

" Furthermore, it is neccessary to everlasting salvation,
that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

" Now, the right faith is, that we believe and confess that
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and
Man.

" He is God of the substance of his Father, begotten before
the world; and he is Man of the substance of his mother,
born in the world.

" Perfect God and perfect Man ; of a rational soul, and
human flesh subsisting.

" Equal to the Father according to his Godhead, and less
than the Father according to his manhood.

" Who, although he be both God and man, yet he is not
two, but one Christ.

" One, not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but
by the taking of the manhood into God.

" One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by
unity of person.

" For as the rational soul and the flesh is one man, so
God and Man is one Christ.

"Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose
again the third day from the dead.

•'He ascended into heaven; he sitteth at the right hand
of God the Father Almighty ; thence he shall come to judge
the living and the dead.

"At whose coming all men shall rise again with their
bodies, and shall give an account of their own works.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 297

"And they that have done good shall go into life ever-
lasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting
fire.

" This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe
faithfully and steadfastly, he cannot be saved.

" Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
shall be, one God, world without end. Amen.

REMARKS.

This is undoubtedly the most complete state-
ment of Trinitarian theology ever made. Like
all others of a similar character, it consists largely
of positively asserted propositions, which the most
learned doctors of that theology acknowledge to
be inexplicable by human reason and inapprehen-
sible by the human understanding. Yet it must be
believed or endless tortures will ensue. It is based
on four fundamental errors, (i) That Jesus
Christ and the Holy Ghost are co-equal with the
Father. (2) That the Holy Ghost is a person as
really as are either the Father or the Son. (3)
That persons are not distinct beings but conjoined
and intermingled. (4) That the person of Christ
is both God and man by virtue of the incarnation.
These theses have no foundation in the Scriptures
and it is only by a forced interpretation of a few
texts or by unwarranted scholastic inference that
they can be made to seem scriptural. And this
must be done in contradiction of plain passages to
the contrary and of the whole tenor of both testa-
ments. Let us examine the errors in the order
named.

298 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

(i) "Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are
co-equal with the Father." Now there are many
Scripture texts which teach or plainly imply that the
Logos, or indwelling spirit, which made the man
Jesus in any proper sense the Christ, was
absolutely divine ; that is, consubstantial with
the essence of God the Father, and of course
co-eternal with him, as consisting of properties
inherent in him. The same is true of the Holy
Ghost or the Holy Spirit. But when we seek for
passages to prove the alleged co-equality of the
Logos and Holy Ghost with the Father they are
nowhere to be found. On the contrary these are
uniformly and unequivocally represented as emana-
tins^ and comino- forth from the Father to mani-
fest his nature, attributes, perfections, purposes,
and will — as sent, directed, empowered to act
altogether in subservience to his pleasure. Thus
Jesus, when accused by the Jews of making him-
self equal with God because he called him his
Father, said : *'' Is it not written in your law. I
said ye are gods .? If he called them gods to
whom the word [Logos] of God came and the
scripture cannot be broken ; say ye of him whom
the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world,
Thou blasphemist because I said I am the Son of
God.?" {John x. 35, 36.) As to the Holy Ghost^
it is, with rare exceptions, spoken of in a similar way,
as sent, given, poured out, etc. — as coming from
some source back of itself. Whereas, God the
Father is in no single instance represented in
that way. Why not, if he is only the co-equal of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 299

the others ? Why should one of these assumed
co-equals be put before the others and described
as greater in authority than they except for the
reason that he is so, and that the assumption is
utterly without foundation.

The creed says : " In this Trinity there is
nothing before or after, nothing greater or less ;
but the whole three persons are co-eternal to one
another and "co-equal." And yet otherwise it
says : " The Son is from the Father alone, not
made, nor created, but begotten." "The Holy
Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made,
nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." How
is it that the first of these co-eternal, co-equal per-
sons is unbegotten, then begets the second, while
the third proceeds from the other two ? Such
statements are plainly contradictory and nullify
each other, proving that the doctrine they are
designed to set forth is a stupendous error, base-
less and vain.

2. " The Holy Ghost is a person as really as
are the Father or the Son." In the gospels the
Father and Son are unmistakably regarded as
possessing personality ; the latter subordinately to
the former. In a few instances the Holy Ghost is
spoken of metaphorically in the masculine gender,
but usually as an impersonal, communicable, divine
afflatus, influence, or energy of the infinite spirit.
A large number of texts might be adduced in sup-
port of this view of which I give a few examples,
to wit : " And Jesus being full of the Holy
Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the

300 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

spirit into the wilderness." {Luke iv. i.) "And
when he had said this, he breathed on them and
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
{John XX. 22.) *'I will pray the Father and he
will give you another Comforter, * * * Even the
Spirit of Truth." "The Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost." {John xiv. i6, 17, 26.) "And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance." {Acts \\. a^) "God annointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost." "The Holy Ghost
fell on all them which heard the word." "On the
Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost."
{Acts. X. 28, 44, 45.) "Being sanctified by the Holy
Ghost." {Ro7n. xv. 16.) "The communion of the
Holy Ghost be with you all." (2 Cor. xiii. 14.)
These passages and a multitude of others of a
similar import show conclusively that Jesus and
the New Testament writers regarded the Holy Ghost
as a divine force, energy, or spirit, emanating from
God and overshadowing, animating, vitalizing its
subject — a manifestation of God in human experi-
ence— an expression of God's communicable essence
or instrinic nature.

3. "Persons are not distinct beings but conjoined
and intermingled." This is one of the fundamental
errors of the creed under review. According to its
teachings there are three persons in the Godhead ;
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and "the
whole three persons are co-eternal to one another
and co-equal." They blend together in one Supreme
Being, which is repugnant to all intelligible ideas of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 301

personality, and offensive to an enlightened under-
standing. The inventors of the Trinitarian hypoth-
esis were sorely puzzled in trying to evade the
charge of the unperverted primitive Christians as
well as of the Jews, that they were teaching a plu-
rality of gods. To meet the charge they pleaded
vehemently that they still held to one and only one
God, who existed in three persons, but not in three
separate entities or beings. But this did not satisfy
their accusers, and from that day to this no human
mind has been able to conceive how this could be,
nor will it ever be able to do so. Even those who
hold that view do not undertake to explain it but
freely admit that it is inexplicable — a mystery
incapable of apprehension by the human mind. In
the very nature of things a doctrine thus defiant
of the noblest attributes of human nature must in
due time be abandoned and a return take place to
the simple but rational and unquestionable teaching
of the New Testament in this respect.

4. Another gross assumption and error of the
Athanasian creed is that Jesus is both God and
man by reason of what is termed the incarnation.
That there was perfect unity between the divine
and human in Christ is to my mind clearly taught
in the Gospels as a sublime fact, and was demon-
strated by his life, character, death, resurrection,
and ascension to glory. But this is not the doc-
trine of a compound personality as assumed in this
and other Trinitarian confessions, which is, that
Christ was a divine Person in the Godhead, begot-
ten of the Father from all eternity, co-existent and

302 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

co-equal with the Father ; that he took on the form
and the attributes of a man when conceived and
born of the Virgin Mary, thus becoming both God
and man ; in which duplex character he wrought
his work in this world, ascended up on high, and
dwells in majesty and glory forevermore. But do
the Scriptures teach anything of this sort, or in
any rational or spiritual interpretation of them
justify the claims that are made in this behalf? I
answer confidently, No ! and challenge refutation
of my denial.

Again ; is not the personality ascribed to Jesus
of Nazareth in the sacred record strictly human in
its original nature and capability ? Most assuredly.
And if the divine Logos, the holy Spirit of God,
had not indwelt in him — had not anointed and
possessed him to a degree far exceeding that of
other men he would and could never have been in
any proper sense the Christ, the Saviour of the
world. Now then did the whole divine Logos
become incarnate in Jesus ? Was it not omnipresent
with the Infinite Father throughout the immensity
of being even while it was so clearly manifesting
itself in and through the Christ of Galilee ? And
is that Christ now in glory anything more than a
perfect human being, infilled and vivified by the
same Logistic Spirit to the highest extent of which
such a being is capable. And will not this be the
case when he shall have delivered up the media-
torial kingdom to God, even the Father, having
subdued all things unto himself, " that God may
be all in all V The plain testimony of the divine

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 303

word spoken both by Jesus and his Apostles is
conchisive upon these several points, disproving
beyond all question the assumption that Jesus
Christ is both God and man in any such sense as
the creed-makers assert — in any such sense as that
which differentiates him from humanity at large and
makes him altogether dissimilar in nature and pos-
sibility to the common order of mankind.

Having considered at length what I deem the
four fundamental errors of the Athanasian Creed
which characterize and vitiate the greater number
of its postulates, I proceed to notice briefly a few
of its other affirmations. Passing over what is stated
concerning the sufferings of Christ for our salvation,
his descent into hell, his resurrection from the dead,
his ascension into heaven, his coming to judge the
world, the resurrection of all men with their bodies,
etc., for the reason that these themes have been
already sufficiently treated and disposed of in the
examination of the Nicene and Apostle's Creeds,
I take up a few other important points.

I. The creed under notice contains this explicit
and very important declaration , " And they that
have done good shall go into life everlasting, and
they that have done evil into everlasting fire." It
is a singular and most noteworthy fact that this is
the only item in this long statement of faith which
even intimates that personal righteousness is of any
importance or value as an element or condition of
human welfare, in time or in eternity, or as a Chris-
tian duty or a requirement under the government

304 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of God. And this it does in a most general, ambig-
uous, indefinite way. Out of forty paragraphs
composing this assumed-to-be comprehensive and
sufficient statement of essential divine truth put
forth as an adequate basis of the Christian church,
only one has any direct reference to character, a
true and holy life, obedience to the divine law,
likeness to God. And we might question whether
this one was designed to have any such interpreta.
tion ; whether the phrase "have done good" was
not intended to characterize those who had made
avowal of the prescribed belief in the Trinity, etc.,
rather than those who had kept the law of love to
God and man ; and whether '* they that have done
evil" was not meant to apply to the rejectors of
that belief rather than to the unjust, the self-seeking,
and the vile. Be that as it may, the one thing
above and before all others that appears in this
creed, is, that belief in it is the indispensable con-
dition of salvation, the only ground of acceptance
with God. And the doing of good must be some-
thing consistent with such belief, growing out of
it perhaps, and the doing of evil something hostile
thereto, caused by rejecting it.

However this be understood, it is beyond all
question that according to this creed those adjudged
to have done evil in the final assizes are to be
sent into everlasting fire, as their irretrievable
destiny. A veil of Scripture literalism disowned
by the best Bible scholars [And rejected in the
New Version.— Ed.] is thus thrown over the fast-
dying dogma of endless punishment, the irrational-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 305

ity, mercilessness, injustice, and unscripturalness of
which I have in a former volume of this series
exposed and demonstrated beyond fear of refuta-
tion. (Vol. I, Discourses XXV, XXVI, XXVII,
XXVIII.) I will not repeat what I have there
stated, but simply ask my readers to behold the
representation which this creed gives of the results
of Christ's mission and of the final consummation of
all things under the government of God. A com-
paratively few of the unnumbered millions of man-
kind saved, made holy and happy for all eternity ;
God the revered and loved Sovereign of only a
small province of His vast empire, all the rest in
endless rebellion against His divine authority — r
rebellion which he can never subdue but only hold
in partial check at best ; untold multitudes of His
rational, immortal creation writhing in hopeless
agony and despair world without end ; the divinely
beneficient purpose of the Infinite Father in respect
to all these thwarted forevermore ! Compare this
with my own tabulated doctrine that there is a
perfect divine retribution for all moral agents ; that
all punishment is remedial and calculated to work
out the reformation of the subject ; that good shall
finally triumph over evil, holiness and happiness at
length prevail throughout the immensity of being,
and God be all in all !

But my chief objection to the creed under exam-
ination is that, as already stated, it makes belief
in its assumptions the absolute and unqualified
condition of salvation. " Which faith," definitely
expressed in the document, '' except every one do

306 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

keep entire and inviolate, without doub.t he shall
perish everlastingly." If this be so, is it not strange,
is it not astonishing that Jesus and the early promul-
gators of his Gospel knew nothing about it, or know-
ing, did not declare it with all definiteness and
plainness of speech so that no one could possibly
mistake concerning it? How solemnly authoritative
would it have seemed in the Sermon on the Mount,
among the sayings of the last interview of Jesus with
his disciples before his betrayal, in Peter's discourse
on the day of Pentecost, or Paul's address on Mars'
Hill, or anywhere, indeed, in the early proclama-
tions of the Gospel Message ! Nay, how incongru-
ous, I might say, with the spirit and burden of that
message whensoever or by whomsoever delivered !
The apology for this reticence — this omission
or neglect offered by Athanasius himself, to the
effect that the Jews were so fixed in the idea that
the Messiah of their prophets was to be a man
like themselves that great care had to be used in
divulging the doctrine of the divinity (deity) of
Christ — this apology is hardly admissable in view
of the fact that Christianity itself was a protest
against the traditional Judaism of that age and that
any preaching of it was an offence to the feelings,
prejudices, and long-cherished opinions of the fol-
lowers of Moses ; which, however, did not put to
silence Peter, Paul, and the rest, much less Jesus,
as champions and defenders of the truths and doc-
trines of the new religion that had come into the
world for the world's redemption. The truth is,
the postulates of the Athanasian Creed are no part

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 307

of the Gospel of Christ ; are not in harmony with
but opposed to its teachings; — they are foreign
accretions devised by Greek metaphysicians, who»
being nominally converted to Christianity and raised
to high ecclesiastical positions, engrafted them upon
the prevailing standards of faith, thus corrupting
the church and turning it away from ''the simplic-
ity that is in Christ."

One of the most mischievous and deplorable con-
sequences of this corruption of the church — of
exalting to a place of supreme importance the
assumption that all who would be saved must hold
some given form of faith, while all who doubt,
question,, or deny that faith ** without doubt shall
perish everlastingly," has been to foster and pro-
mote religious pride, bigotry, injustice, persecution,
a malignant and damnatory exclusiveness on the
part of those thus believing towards all dissentients
and unbelievers. Such assumption contains the
seeds of these and kindred anti-Christian vices,
conceals the virus that poisons the very fountains
of the divine life in the soul of man. Nay, more;
it not infrequently vitiates men's conception of
God, causing them to deny His supreme universal
Fatherhood, and not only to limit His saving grace
and power, but ascribe to Him qualities and acts
derogatory to His all-perfect character ; making
Him the enemy and not the friend of the way-
ward and sinful, and investing Him with the attri-
butes of a malign despot toward the great majority
of those whom He created in His own image and
made heirs of immortality. It has caused its

308 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

devotees and expositors to confine all divine grace*
discipline, probation, and opportunity of salvation
for the unregenerate to the fleeting periods of the
earth-life, and to remand all who die "out of Christ"
to the unappeasable vengeance of God and to the
flames of never-ending fire. But the most fatal
defect of this creed is to be found in the fact that
it contains no prescript to a virtuous and holy life,
and lays upon its adherents no sacred obligation
to '*do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with
God" — to be Christlike in thought, in conduct,
and in character. The things which the Master
made paramount and supreme, it makes little or
no account of, while the things which He never
requires or even mentions, it exalts to a place of
superlative and indispensable importance. To a
rational understanding, to a judgment governed by
moral considerations, to a soul animated by the
spirit of Christ, this is its sufflcient, all-prevailing
condemnation. If my proposed standard of faith
and practice be not incomparably superior to this
one in the respects indicated, then are error, folly,
and hate better and nobler than truth, wisdom, and
love in the moral estimate, and in the divine order
of the world.

DISCOURSE XIX.

THE BOM AN AND GBEEK CHURCHES EXAMINED:
THEIB CBEEDS ANALYZED AND COMPABED.

" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit ; after the tradition of men, after the rudiments
of the world, and not after Christ." " Let no man beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping,
of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen,
vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." — Col. ii. 8, i8.

The two oldest religious bodies in Christendom,
as well as the two largest in point of numbers,
are those commonly designated by the names
"The Roman Church" and ''The Greek Church."
Each styles itself "The One, True, Holy, Apos-
tolic, Catholic Church," and in various forms of
expression claims supreme precedence over all
others. Both hold sacred and fundamental the
Nicene and Apostle's Creeds, except that the
Greek church protests against that interpretation
of the former which makes the Holy Ghost pro-
ceed from the Son no less than from the Father,
and not from the Father only, as it maintains.
That church separated from the Roman in the
eleventh century, chiefly on the ground that the
alleged supremacy of the Pope was an unwarranted
usurpation, though there were other but minor

310 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

points of doctrine or of ceremony involved; all in
the direction of greater simplicity and closer con-
formity to the example of the primitive church.
Its ministry differs from that of the Roman com-
munion as oligarchy differs from monarchy, the
ultimate authority being vested in several Patriarchs
instead of one Papal sovereign ; both alike, however,
in exercising arrogated power and in making the
laity at large fawning suppliants or abject slaves; —
a form of ecclesiasticism as unlike that of Apostolic
times as was that of the Levitical priesthood under
the Mosaic dispensation. Both, too, were the natu-
ral fruits of that assumption of episcopal preroga-
tive which, beginning in the second century, grew
in strength and in audacity for more than a
thousand years; giving birth to innumerable evils,
mischiefs, and abominations throughout Christen-
dom, and bringing incalculable reproach upon the
name and religion of the meek and lowly Nazarene.
It is not convenient for me, nor is it necessary
to my leading purpose, to examine in detail and
critically the respective declarative confessions of
these two great sects ( for sects I must in strict
justice call them) of the nominal church of Christ.
Suffice it if I consider somewhat minutely that of
the Roman (or Western, as it is often termed,)
branch and note in proper time and place the more
important points upon which the Greek (or Eastern)
branch is at variance or in controversy therewith.
I have already stated that both, with specified
exceptions, hold to the Apostles' and Nicene
creeds. The Western church accepts the Athana-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 311

sian declaration of belief, as noted in a former
discourse, but the Eastern disowns it, or, at least,
is silent concerning it altogether.

The several formularies just mentioned were
regarded as the authoritative standards of faith in
the Roman Catholic body from the time of their
adoption until the rise of the Protestant Reforma-
tion under Martin Luther in the sixteenth century.
The agitation and unrest caused by that great
movement in human history seemed to necessitate,
in the minds of the. Papal hierarchy and their
advisers, a re-statement of the doctrine of the long-
dominant ecclesiasticism of the Christian world,
with the view of adapting it to the needs of the
times, of foreclosing, if possible, all forms of heresy
that might arise to threaten its prosperity and its
peace, and of inducing the Protestants to return
to the old faith. To effect that object the famous
"Council of Trent" was convoked by orders from
the Pope — a Council whose fortunes were singu-
larly varied and phenomenal. It was first summoned
to meet at Mantua in Italy in 1537, but the reign-
ing monarch there objected and it was appointed
at Vicenza. By reason of prevailing excitement
which threatened violence, bloodshed, and open war,
it did not convene till 1545, and then at Trent in
Austria, when and where its deliberations began.
After numerous adjournments and suspensions,
occasioned by the troubled state of the times, the
appearance of the plague, the occurrence of vacan-
cies by death in the Pontifical chair at Rome, etc.,
its twenty-fifth and final session was held Dec. 4,

312 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

1563, at which date its decrees were signed and a
few weeks after confirmed by the Pope, Pius IV,
making them the recognized and authoritative doc-
trines of the Roman Catholic Church, as they have
continued to be substantially to the present day.
Nothing of importance, that I am aware of, has
been added to them since, excepting the dogma of
**The Immaculate Conception," as it is called, and
that of "The Infallibility of the Pope," which had
been practically adopted many generations ago, it
being, as before indicated, the leading cause of the
withdrawal and independent attitude of the Greek
church in the eleventh century. These later accre
tions are but the ornamental finishing touches
given by Pius IX and his prelates to the medieval
standard set up by the doctrinaires of Trent and
formally enjoined upon all true Catholics from that
day to the present time. That standard I present
to my readers in full, under the name of the dis-
tinguished Pontiff whose signature imparted to it
validity and sanctity in all departments of the
most ancient sect in Christendom.

CREED OF PIUS IV.

" I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesi-
astical traditions and all other constitutions and observances
of the same [holy Roman] Church. I also admit the sacred
Scriptures according to the sense which the holy mother
Church has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge
of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures;
nor will I ever take or interpret them otherwise than accord-
ing to the unanimous consent of the fathers. I profess also
that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 313

new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord and for the
salvation of mankind, though all are not necessary for every
one; namely, baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance,
extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, and that they con-
fer grace; and of these, baptism, confirmation, and order can-
not be reiterated without sacrilege. I do also receive and
admit the ceremonies of the Catholic Church, received and
approved in the solemn administration of all the above said
sacraments. I receive and embrace all and every one of the
things which have been defined and declared in the holy
Council of Trent concerning sin and justification. I profess
likewise that in the mass is offered to God a true, proper,
and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and dead; and that
in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly*
really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with
the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that
there is made a whole conversion of the whole substance of
the bread into the body, and of the whole wine into the
blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls transub-
stantiation. I confess, also, that under either kind alone,
\vhole and entire, Christ and a true sacrament is received.
I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the
souls detained there are helped by the suffrages of the faith-
ful. Likewise that the saints reigning together with Christ
are to be honored and invocated, that they offer prayer to
God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated. I
most firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the
Mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of the other saints,
are to be had and retained, and that due honor and venera-
tion are to be given to them. I also affirm that the power
of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church, and that
the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people. I
acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolic Roman Church,
the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise and
swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, the successor of
St. Peter, prince of the apostles and vicar of Jesus Christ.
I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things deliv-
ered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general

314 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent ; and
likewise I also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things
contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned,,
rejected, and anathematized by the Church. This true
catholic faith, out of which none can be saved, which I now
freely profess and truly hold, I, A. B. promise, vow, and
swear most constantly to hold and profess the same whole
and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life ; and
to procure, as far as lies in my power, that the same shall be
held, taught, and preached by all who are under me, or are
entrusted to my care, by virtue of my office. So help me
God and these holy Gospels of God. Amen."

REMARKS.

Is it not incredible that a grave body of men,
professing to reverence Christ and his Apostles
and to derive their faith from the New Testament
Scriptures, should embrace and declare under oath
as absolutely true and obligatory such a creed and
covenant as this.'' Yet no man can enter and main-
tain good standing in the Roman hierarchy without
doing the same thing. In view of this fact one is
prompted to ask for what cardinal objects the
Romish Church exists, except to secure belief in
astounding dogmas, perform burdensome ceremo-
nies, maintain an autocratic priesthood, and induce
the credulous and superstitious to hope for heaven
in the world to come on account of such belief
and formal observances in the world that now is.
Moral and spiritual Christlikeness, in its ministry^
in its laity, in its social relationships — the conver-
sion of individual souls and the world from sin to
holiness — the development of a divine order of
human life — the building up of the kingdom of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 315

God on the earth, — these things are not proposed,
suggested, or seemingly dreamed of as the proper,
paramount ends for which the church exists and
to the accomplishment of which its energies and
activities should be unwaveringly directed. And yet
these are the ends and aims that are made of sur-
passing importance and portrayed in bold relief as
the supreme objects of human pursuit and of
Christ's mission on every page of the Gospel story.
Is it any wonder that a church, forgetting or ignor-
ing these great essentials of Christian truth and
duty, turning itself away from the plain precepts
and example of its professed Master and Lord, not-
withstanding its outward success in many respects —
notwithstanding its immense following, its stately
ceremonial, its imposing cathedrals and ever-open
sanctuaries, should have given rise to myriads of
sceptics and infidels wherever it has held sway, and
have been attended by an ignorant, degraded, dis-
solute populace ? Is it any wonder that under such
circumstances persecution and cruelty, violence and
bloodshed should have characterized its career
through the ages ; that in partially civilized lands
where it has had place and kept up its solemn
rites, the great majority of offenders against the
laws of God and man, of mischief-makers and
criminals, should come from its ranks ; or that its
ecclesiastical capital was for generations one of the
filthiest, most disorderly, worst-governed cities in'
Europe, whose better-minded inhabitants rejoiced
to welcome a new regime when a convenient oppor-
tunity was presented to them ? Is it any wonder

316 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

that with all that can justly be claimed in its favor, —
with its orders of charity, its restraints upon cer-
tain proscribed forms of immorality and vice, its
considerable roll of sincere, upright, God-fearing
devotees and saints above reproach and blame, it
should cling tenaciously to the past, obstruct the
pathway of human progress, and yield only when
obliged to, and then most reluctantly, to those
ameliorating and redemptive forces, which, under
God and through the consecrated efforts of high-
minded, philanthropic, noble-souled men and women,
are working for the uplifting of humanity, for the
enlargement of the empire of truth, righteousness,
and love among men, and for the coming of the
kingdom of heaven to the earth ?

But let us particularize. Let us examine some
of the principal features of the confession which
reflects the decisions of the Council of Trent, and
which distinguishes the theological and moral atti-
tude of the Romish Church in these later centuries
of the Christian era. I can but epitomise and indi-
cate by abbreviated extracts, the more significant
affirmations of the document referred to and quoted
on. a preceding page, beginning with the first which
reads as follows: —

I. ''I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical
and ecclesiastical traditions," etc. What are these
apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, as they are
termed ? They consist of a large number of alleged
facts, historical, doctrinal, ceremonial, sacerdotal,
pastoral, relating to the fundamental principles, the
organic structure, or the administrative polity of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 31T

the church, which are not mentioned in the New
Testament records nor in any authentic annals of
early Christian or Apostolic times, but which claim
to have originated or taken place in those times ;
the knowledge of them having been transmitted
orally and without break or perversion from Jesus
and his immediate fellow-workers to their succes-
sors, and these to others coming after them, and so
on from generation to generation and from age to
age. But a careful inquiry into their origin, con-
ducted according to the laws, of historical evidence,
proves beyond question that most of them are
wholly untrustworthy, while the few that can be
substantiated are of very little importance as related
to Christian doctrine or the Christian life. Speak-
ing in a general way they sprang up at a very
confused and obscure period of human history,
were at first exceedingly vague and uncertain, were
embraced by the superstitious and credulous, and
greatly magnified by unscrupulous ecclesiastics who
cared little or nothing for their authenticity or
validity, only so be it they could be used to further
their own ambitious designs and promote their own
personal advantage. The more thoroughly they are
tested the more worthless do they appear as sup-
ports or aids to pure and undefiled religion. I
therefore cast them aside as undeserving of notice
in any rational effort to re mold the nominal Chris-
tian church and bring it into accord with the pattern
shown us in the New Testament.

2. ** I also admit the sacred Scriptures accord-
ing to the sense in which the holy mother church

318 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to
judge of the true sense and interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures," etc. This is an unwarrantable
surrender of that right of private judgment in mat-
ters of religion which it is every person's inaliena-
ble prerogative and solemn duty to maintain and
exercise — a right of which no church can dispossess
a person without committing an act of gross tyranny
and usurpation. The Scriptures themselves teach
very clearly the course of thought and conduct to
be pursued in this regard. They throw every one
back upon his own personal responsibility, and
counsel every one in the words of the Master to
"search the Scriptures" for himself and to judge
for himself what is right in this as in all other
matters of duty and obligation. No church has
any authority or is competent or ought to presume
to give infallible interpretations of the divine word
and impose such interpretations upon its devotees
without the consent and hearty approval of the
individual reason, judgment, and conscience. It
may offer opinions, defend them, urge their accept-
ance, but must never by any authority or power
at its command impose them arbitrarily upon its
members, but leave them to act upon their own
responsibility in accepting or rejecting them. The
Roman church has never encouraged or even tol-
erated this freedom and independence of thought
and judgment in the study of the sacred records,
and so is deserving of the censure and reprobation
of all high-minded, intelligent, liberty-loving souls.
Moreover, its expositors, teachers, ministers, of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 319

whatever grade, have not, during the ongoing
centuries of its history, been sufficiently intelligent,
disinterested, rational, Christlike, to justify any such
confidence, any such self-surrender as the clause of
the confession under notice implies. Its assump-
tions upon the subject in question are not only
preposterous, but intolerable. Compare them with
my affirmations upon the same subject as they
appear on pages 112, 113, and judge candidly which
are most worthy of acceptance and commendation.

3. "I profess also that there are truly and
properly seven sacraments of the new law insti-
tuted by Jesus Christ our Lord and for the salva-
tion of mankind," etc. Now I venture to assert
that Jesus Christ instituted nothing of the kind.
The word sacrament is not found in the New
Testament nor any equivalent term in the sense
alleged ; that is, as an ordiance instituted " for the
salvation of mankind." Even baptism and- the
eucharist, the most important and most widely
observed of the rites specified, have no such sav-
ing significance or power as set forth. They are
but symbols of what is of vital importance — the
first of that effusion and reception of the Holy
Spirit which cleanses the soul from impurity and
sin ; the second of that communion and fellowship
of true disciples of Christ which answers the
Master's prayer, " that they all may be one," and of
that tender and affectionate remembrance of him
which is calculated to reproduce in the hearts of
men his predominating spirit of self-sacrificing love.
Neither of these has the least value or efficacy

320 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in the work of redemption unless attended by these
characteristic results. Concerning the other sacra-
ments, they rest upon no authority whatever, as
such, and have no binding force only so far as
they can be made conducive to the moral and
spiritual elevation and improvement of those who
observe them. The sacredness ascribed to them
as purely fanciful and illusive, having no better
basis or reason for being than the fertile imagina-
tion of ambitious prelates or the traditions spoken
of in the last paragraph. True allegiance to the
great Teacher and an enlightened understanding
concur in rejecting the assumptions of the Council
of Trent and its mouth-piece, Pius IV, in respect
to them.

4. '' I receive and embrace all and every one of
the things which have been defined and declared
in the holy Council of Trent concerning sin and
justification." Just as much of this confession as
is in harmony with the teachings and example of
Christ or can commend itself as true, useful, or
expedient, to the reason and moral judgment of
intelligent, God-fearing men, is allowable and worthy
of acceptance, and no more. No credence is to be
given it because enjoined by the Council of Trent
or any^ other ecclesiastical conclave or tribunal
before or since it was held. What is irrational,
false, mischievous, unchristian, in doctrine, in cere-
mony, in ritual, or in practice, can derive no
authority, no sanction, no obligatoriness, from any
human enactment or decree, either of church or
state.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 321

5. " I profess likewise that in the mass is offered
to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice
for the living and the dead ; and that in the most
holy sacrament of the eucharist there is * * *
a conv^ersion of the whole substance of the bread
into the body and of the whole wine into the
blood, [of the Lord Jesus Christ,] which conversion
the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation." Such
profession is without warrant in either Scripture
or reason, the things professed being alike repug-
nant and an offence to both. The idea of the
mass as a propitiatory offering to God is a purely
human conception which found early expression in
the Levitical sin-offering of the ancient Hebrews,
from whom it came into the complex ceremonial
of the Catholic scholiasts and creed-makers, where
it is clothed with supernatural efficacy and invested
with a sacred charm to millions of unreasoninof,
credulous communicants. So far as it is regarded
as a religious service it is based upon the Pagan
conception of Deity as a Being subject to like
passions with men and influenced by like motives
and considerations ; a Being at enmity with man-
kind but yet ready to become their friend by the
presentation on their part of costly gifts and offer-
ings. But all this is in utter contravention and
denial of the great central Christian doctrine of
the Fatherhood of God and of His infinite, never-
failing love for all His human children, in all lands
and times, which is a virtual denial of Christianity
itself and of its great Head, even Christ. And
this is a sufficient refutation and condemnation of
the dogma in question.

322 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Equally fanciful and groundless, and even more
absurd, is the Catholic dogma of transubstantiation.
A few texts of Scripture taken in their most
literal sense, such as, *' I am the bread of life,"
" Except ye eat the flesh of the San of man and
drink his blood ye have no life in you," may be
and are quoted in its support ; but they are all so
evidently metaphorical and symbolic of a great
spiritual truth as not to mislead or confuse any
well balanced, thoughtful mind. And the hypothe-
sis or conjecture that bread and wine by the invo-
cation or other intervention of priest, bishop, or
pope, or by the power of God, is, or ever was,
changed in the twinkling of an eye and without
the least modification of form into veritable flesh
and blood, and that the flesh and blood of a per-
sonage who lived and moved among men two
thousand years ago is too grossly unphilosophical,
fallacious, puerile, delusive, to deserve more than
the briefest consideration. Every one must know
that the bread and wine used in the Lord's Sup-
per or eucharist are precisely the same material
substances after priestly consecration they were
before — bread and wine still, and in no literal or
intelligible sense flesh and blood. Who thinks
otherwise is beyond the reach of argument. And
as to the utterances of Jesus referred to, their
author indicates their figurative signification when
he says in the same talk with his disciples, "It
is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth
nothing." "The words I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life." So ends the discussion
upon that point.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 323

6. " I constantly hold that there is a purgatory
and that the souls detained therein are helped by
the suffrages of the faithful." If by this afifirma-
tion is meant that there is a place or state, in
which imperfect, sensual, sin-smitten human beings
are subjected to influences and agencies calculated
to cleanse and purify them and fit them for higher
and more Christlike experiences, and that such may
be helped by the prayers, sympathies, and fraternal
aspirations of the faithful, even though death has
removed the needy and suffering ones from all
mortal sight, I should not be disposed to object to
that view, though I should not deem it wise to
incorporate it specifically in a platform for a true
Christian church. But I fancy that the purgatory
of the papal theology has few characteristics like
the one I have portrayed. That, if I understand
it, pertains wholly to the world to come ; is an
intermediate state of existence between earth and
heaven. It is for imperfect Catholic souls, or those
of kindred faith, destined for heaven in the not far-
distant future, yet not pure enough at present to
enter its blessed abodes, and so must needs tarry
awhile on the way in order to be purged of the
evil that contaminates them by more or less dis-
ciplinary punishment between death and the resur-
rection ; which punishment may be mitigated or
shortened somewhat, and deliverance from it into
Paradise be hastened, by the supplications, votive
offerings, and benefactions to the church on the
part of relatives, friends, and interceding priests,
still dwelling in the habitations of earth and time.

324 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Taking this view of the doctrine it is to be summa-
rily rejected. And when used, as is often -the case,
to terrify the unfaithful and credulous, to gain prose-
lytes, to foster ceremonial and pretended piety, or
to swell the revenues of the church and nourish
priestly pride and ambition, it is a delusion and a
snare, a mischievous and reprehensible superstition,
to be disowned and anathematized as an offence to
God and to Christly men.

7. The adoration or semi-worship of saints, vener-
ation for their relics, the homage paid to images
of Christ and of the Virgin Mary as the ** Mother
of God," and all similar exercises and requirements
having no basis in Scriptures, in moral verities, or
in an enlightened conscience and understanding,
must be considered as vagaries and species of
idolatry, and denied a place in every Christian
creed and ritual. All just honor should be paid
to saintly men and women, martyrs for truth's sake
and prophets of God of every age, race, or nation,
and a certain measure of interest in and love for
painting and statuary representing the personality
of the truly great and good, as well as the scenes
in which they were conspicuous and the laudable
achievements they have won in the service of God
and humanity, should be cherished and commended.
But everything akin to adoration or worship in the
highest sense belongs to God and to Him alone, —
the almighty, all-wise, all-perfect Father.

8. The doctrine of indulgences as held and
practiced in the Roman Church is wholly indefen-
sible and pernicious. For any dignitary of ecclesi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 325

astical or civil rank in life, however high in authority
and power to presume to grant to any subordinate
the privilege of committing sin, venial or otherwise,
with the promise of shielding him from the retribu-
tive consequences thereof, or for one to avail himself
of such privilege by the payment of money or for
any earthly consideration, is a capital offence against
the moral order of the world, an insult to every
commandment of Scripture, and an outrage upon
the common conscience of mankind. The idea
needs no exposure of its essential wickedness and
no attempt to prove its ruinous influence upon
human character and the durable welfare of the
world.

9. Acknowledgment of the Roman Church as
the mother and mistress of all the churches, and
the Pope as the successor of St. Peter has no
virtue in it and forms no part of the duty enjoined
by that Gospel of Christ, which is the power of
God unto human salvation. If Peter could be
considered "the prince of the apostles and vicar of
Jesus Christ," it was only in a rhetorical and figu-
rative sense, and not as having been clothed with
absolute authority and power to govern the church
according to the dictates of his own arbitrary will,
which authority and power he could transmit to a
line of successors continuing unto the end of time.
And the promise or vow to obey any one who
should presume to appear in that line at any period
in human history is of the same essential nature
as that of sworn allegiance to any claimant for
homage and loyalty that may spring to the front

326 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in the arena of human affairs, All such devotion,
self-surrender, and allegiance, I disallow, repudidate,
and condemn, as derogatory to manliness of char-
acter, prejudicial to true discipleship of Christ, and
as dishonorable towards Him to whom alone unre-
served obedience is evermore due.

lo. The remaining clauses of the creed under
notice may be grouped together and made to
share a common consideration and verdict. They
are indiscriminate and sweeping in their char-
acter and have little in them to commend them
to the better judgment and higher moral sense
of mankind. They virtually enjoin, as they ver-
bally express and avow, the most unquestioning,
not to say the most servile and abject, submission
to the dictates and decrees of the Roman Hierarchy
as formulated and proclaimed by the Council of
Trent, conceding no right of private judgment and
recognizing no claims of the individual conscience
to answer for itself at the bar of infinite justice
in all matters of faith, of duty, and of righteous-
ness. And this in arrogant contempt of that liberty
wherewith Christ maketh free and in utter repudia-
tion of the repeated charge of the Master to those
who were to carry his message as ambassadors
to the waiting multitudes of Judea and to Gentile
nations dwelling beyond on its way to the conquest
of the world. " Ye know that the princes of the
Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that
are great exercise authority upon them: But it
shall not be so among you ; but whosoever will be
great among you, let him be your minister ; and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 327

whosoever will be chief among you let him be your
servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give hi s
life a ransom for many." — Matt. xx. 25-28. " Be
not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master even
Christ, and all ye are brethren." — Matt, xxiii. 8-
"Why of yourselves judge ye not what is right V —
Luke xii. 57.

How far the Greek Church, whose secession from
the Roman autocracy was consummated in the
eleventh century, is absolved from censure or con-
demnation in regard to the objectionable features
of the confession just examined can be stated in
a brief paragraph. It denies the authority of the
Pope and all the claims set up for the superiority
of the Papal See, although it assumes scarcely less
for its own Patriarchate, but without pretension of
its infallibility. It repudiates all indulgences for
sin and knows of no such place or state as the
Roman purgatory. It excludes confirmation, extreme
unction, and matrimony from its list of sacraments,
and ascribes no sacrificial significance to the eucha-
rist, giving no credence to the dogma of transub-
stantiation. It maintains that the Holy Ghost
proceeds alone from the Father, being an emana-
tion or manifestation of the Infinite Divine Spirit.
It venerates the Virgin Mary and canonized saints
in subordinate degree, but objects to image worship,
and even to the use of images in relief or embossed
work, though allowing paintings, and engravings in
copper and silver. It approves the marriage of
priests, provided they enter that relation before

328 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

receiving holy orders. In many other but unim-
portant respects it differs from its great con-
temporary. Yet for the most part the two agree
substantially in doctrine, in organization, and in
church administration, as they do in matters
of duty and practical righteousness. In regard to
essential truth and the exemplification of the prin-
ciples of holy living, I can but feel that both alike
have departed widely from the teachings and require-
ments of pure Primitive Christianity.

Yet it would undoubtedly be very unjust to deny
that both of them have numbered and still number
among their adherents many exemplary, praise-
worthy disciples of Christ, animated by his spirit,
reproducing his life, doing his work in the world.
Such are what they are, not because of their eccle-
siastical relations and surroundings, or of their
doctrinal beliefs, but often in spite of them and to
their condemnation. Yet they are in the same
denominational ship with an overwhelming mass
of less worthy associates, under the management
of partizan, ambitious, and arrogant prelates, — the
victims or slaves of a system, to which they nomi-
nally belong but which they virtually are not of.
They are stars of hope in a darkened sky, the
seed-grain of blessed harvests yet to come. And
by such in God's good time, casting off their old
ecclesiasticism and rising into a new life, shall the
church of the better dispensation be built. So
may it be.

DISCOURSE XX.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND RELATED

C03IMUNI0NS.

THE THIRY-NINE ARTICLES,

" Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith ;
not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men
that turn from the truth." — Titus \. 13, 14.

The Church of England, though somewhat younger
than the Evangelical Lutheran Church established
in Germany by the distinguished theologue whose
names it bears, may yet be deemed first in impor-
tance among the religious bodies that sprang up
in the sixteenth century as the result or first-fruits
of that great movement known as the Protestant
Reformation. It derives it name from the fact
that it separated from the Roman hierarchy and
assumed an independent position in the religious
world with the sanction and by the authority of
the English government, of which Henry VIII was
then head, and has received the support of that
government as a state church from that day to
the present time. Its related communions are those
branches existing in the colonial possessions of the
kingdom with which it holds some definite ecclesi-
astical relations, and the Protestant Episcopal
Church of the United States, which, though not

330 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

organically connected with it, is yet substantially
like it in theory, in form of administration, and in
practical life. This American branch of the English
Church was severed from the parent stock and
became independent by reason of the separation
of the colonies on this side the Atlantic from the
mother country, which necessitated a change of
so much in its ritual as related to its former con-
nection with the British state. A few other altera
tions in its methods of operation have been made
from time to time, but none that have affected
materially its essential character or standing as an
ecclesiastical body. The English church adheres to
the Nicene, Apostles', and Athanasian Creeds, but
the American rejects the last of these. The doc-
trinal standards of the former are found in the
Book of Homilies, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the
Prayer Book ; those of the latter being the same,
with the modifications just referred to, and to them
we must go, especially to the Thirty-nine Articles,
for themes of discussion in the present Discourse.
With the time and space at my command I cannot
enter into all the details of those Articles, but,
passing silently by the less important particulars,
address myself to those of primary significance,
condensing what I have to say upon them to the
narrowest possible limits.

It will prepare the way for the more intelligible
consideration of the general subject of this Discourse
and be doing more perfect justice to all persons and
parties concerned, if I indulge in a few additional
explanatory observations ; more particularly as regards

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 331

the bearing which the discussion may have in respect
to the Church of England, its official functionaries,
and the great multitude of its communicants and
votaries. That Church is in many ways anomalous
and paradoxical ; exceedingly complex, diversified,
heterogeneous, mixed, and even self-contradictory,
in its membership and actual beliefs. It sustains
close relations to the civil authorities. Its real
head is the reigning monarch, who may be a sincere,
devout follower of the Master, or an agnostic, a
man of the world, a debauchee, or a profligate.
But whatever his merits or demerits be, his char-
acter and life, honorable or dishonorable, he must
be ex-officio a good churchman. The House of
Lords has a considerable clerical representation,
holding seats by virtue of their ecclesiastical posi-
tion. Both clergy and laity of this Church are
divided into at least three schools of religious
thought or opinion — three sects in one sect — three
parties in one fellowship, to wit: the High Church-
men, almost Roman Catholic in their views ; Low
Churchmen, virtually Presbyterian or Methodist ;
and Broad Churchmen, who are Rationalistic in
various degrees. To these might probably be added
a No Chitrch contingent, who care nothing for reli-
gion in any sense ; but who keep up its forms
from motives of expediency or personal advantage,
or possibly from long-continued habit, the momen-
tum of which has not yet been overcome. Its
statement of faith is a strange compound of Cal-
vinism and Arminianism which no metaphysical
genius or necromancer has been able to harmonize

332 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and unite. And its system of ecclesiastical admin-
istration is an inexplicable network of spiritual and
temporal methods, appliances, and maneuverings.
Many of these censurable features of the English
Church no doubt characterize its American counter-
part, and so far expose it to the same criticism —
possibly to the same condemnation. But leaving
these generalizations we will proceed to a more
specific examination of the leading doctrinal declara-
tions of the system under notice, embodied in the
famous

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

" I. There is but one living and true God, everlasting,
without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite power, wisdom,
and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both
visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be
three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

"2. The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten
from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, of
one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the
womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance ; so that two
whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead
and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never
to be divided ; whereof is one Christ, very God, and very
Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to
reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for
original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.

"3. As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it
to be believed, that He went down into hell.

"4. Christ did truly rise again from death and took again
His body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to
the perfection of man's nature, wherewith He ascended into
heaven, and there sitteth, until He return to judge all men
at the last day.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 33S

, "5. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the
Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father
and the Son, very and eternal God."

REMARKS.

I have quoted these articles in full as pertaining
to one common subject — the Trinity — not with
a view of repeating the criticisms I have already
made, but to show, briefly, how much scholastic
error and stultifying contradiction the ecclesiastical
artisans of the English Church could combine with
a modicum of grand Scriptural doctrine; all of which
is solemnly vouched for and put forth as absolute
divine truth by the present generation of British
and American Episcopalians, whatever may be their
mental reservations.

The first period of the first Article expresses a
sublime conception of the Infinite Author and
Preserver of all things, except that possibly the
terms '' parts " and "passions" may be of doubtful
import. But alas for what follows ! This one God
who is "without parts" by some magic or divina-
tion is divided into co-equal parts, called persons,
"of one substance, power, and eternity." Moreover,
His second part, called "the Son," "begotten from
everlasting," "the very and eternal God," con-
tracted His infinity to an atom in the womb of the
blessed Virgin, where He took to Himself another
part, a man's nature, becoming thereby both God
and man, "never to be divided." In that complex
capacity He suffered, was crucified, died, and was
buried ; He rose again ; and, taking once more
"His body," "flesh, blood, and all things pertain-

334 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ing to His human nature," ascended therewith to
heaven, where He, "without body, parts, or pas-
sions," sitteth and will sit with His human body,
flesh, blood, etc., till He return to judge all men
at the last day. Can any combination of words,
any verbal jugglery, be more unphilosophical, irra-
tional, puerile, absurd, than that .'*

Yet still more unreasonable and astonishing, if
possible, this living, eternal God "truly suffered,
was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his
Father to us," etc. Yet this Father was of the
same "substance, majesty, and glory" as was the
Son and the Holy Ghost. But neither of these
two needed to be reconciled. Why, then, should
the Father.? How could there be such need in
His case when there was no need in the case of
the others, if they were all one and the same as
repeatedly declared .? Nevertheless, the second of
these persons in the triune Godhead voluntarily
assumed the tremendous sacrificial burden of appeas-
ing the first of them, when, if language has any
meaning, they were both alike, "very and eternal
God," "of one substance, power, and eternity."

And then, again, the third person proceeded
from the other two, although he was just as old,
original, powerful, and glorious as either of the
others. How can one being proceed or derive
existence from other beings when all are of the
same age and co-equal in all respects, neither having
precedence of, or superiority over, the others ?
Moreover, if there were any proceeding in the case
before us, the second person of the Trinity — the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 335

God-man — who as such did not exist till his incar-
nation— till conceived of the Virgin Mary by the
Holy Ghost, maybe much more truly said to have
proceeded from the Holy Ghost than the Holy
Ghost from Him, — the Holy Ghost being in fact,
according to the laws of procreation, his father, as
Mary was his mother. And this accords fully with
the letter of the Scriptures found in Matt. i. i8,
and Ltike i. 35.

But why dwell upon these incredible, amazing
vagaries of a pur-blind, superstitious, self-inflated
dogmatism? They have no pretended basis except
in those apocryphal fictions which preface the two
Gospels mentioned, and which, according to reliable
ancient testimony, did not appear in the manuscript
editions used by the early Hebrew Christians, but
which were surreptitiously introduced before the
middle of the second century, to the great confu-
sion of commentators and to the deplorable mis-
guidance of the church and the fearful perversion
of "the truth as it is in Jesus." It is a fact that
militates strongly against the authenticity of those
preliminary passages, even if it does not demon-
strate their spuriousness, that none of the extraor-
dinary phenomena narrated in them are mentioned
at all in any contemporaneous writings, or so much
as referred to in any other portion of the same
Gospels or elsewhere in the New Testament record;
an omission most unaccountable and even blame-
worthy if the hypotheses founded upon them formed
any part of the "good tidings of great joy which
shall be to all people," or were of such vital impor-
tance in the work of human redemption as has

336 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

been for fifteen centuries and still is ascribed to
them by the great majority of priests and people
in the nominal Christian church, and as is even
now believed by millions of sincere, intelligent fol-
lowers of the man of Nazareth. But the day is
surely coming when such theories will be regarded
by all conscientious, reasonable men and women
as most people now regard the exploded illusions
of fetish worshipers in most ancient times or
among most ignorant and degraded peoples. All
honor to those, who, seeing their intrinsic falsity
and harmfulness will expose their real character
and cry aloud against them, and who, like Servetus
the anti-trinitarian Spanish physician, would be
burned at the stake sooner than pretend to believe
such unwarranted, chimerical, unchristian mysticisms
and superstitions. "Let the dead bury their dead,"
though it take a thousand years.

Article Six of the series under examination, *' Of
the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures," and Seven,
**0f the Old Testament," need considerable pruning
and qualification, but are not of sufficient impor-
tance to justify specific criticism in this connection.
Especially as my views upon the subjects involved
are presented with sufficient fullness in a previous
discourse. And the subject-matter found in Article
Eight, "Of the Creeds," received all needful consid-
eration in my last one (No. XIX).

9. " Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam,
(as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the fault and cor-
ruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engen-
dered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 337

gone from original righteousness, and is, of his own nature,
inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to
the Spirit; and therefore, in every person born into this
world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. And this
infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regen-
erated; whereby the lust of the flesh * * * is not subject
to the law of God. And although there is no condemnation
for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth
confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature
of sin."

As I have not heretofore considered at length
the long-held doctrine of human depravity, I give
the above article entire, as to its essential teaching,
in order that I may make it the basis of a some-
what thorough examination of the subject. It is
a rather awkward and ambiguous statement of the
doctrine, which is, in brief, that the whole human
race lapsed in Adam into a state of either total
or nearly total sinfulness, guilt, corruption, and
rebellion against God; in other words, the doctrine
of the "Fall of Man." Expressed in full it repre-
sents that Adam and Eve, the reputed first parents
of all mankind, were created not merely innocent,,
like infants, unconscious of the moral law, but
absolutely holy and Godlike; and so constituted as.
to be immortal unless they should commit sin..
Adam was made the federal head of all his posterity
and placed on probation, not for himself alone but
for all his descendants. The artful adversary, Satan,
so runs the theologic tale, tempted Eve and through
her Adam. Both sinned, thereby coming into a
state of gross depravity, and were consequently
sentenced to death — death temporal and death

338 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

spiritual ; or, as sometimes formulated, ** to all the
miseries of this life, death itself, and the pains
of hell forever." Their depravity, thus acquired,
with its attendant guilt and resultant sentence of
condemnation, they transmitted to all deriving exist-
ence from them. Whence it follows that all men,
of every age and clime to the end of time, are
born under the curse of sin derived from their
original progenitors, and hence called original sin,
are inclined by hereditary propensity to all manner
of iniquity, and doomed to never-ending misery in
the world to come.

Such in comprehensible terms is the teaching of
scholastic theology in the Episcopal and all so-called
Evangelical Churches concerning the Fall of Man —
the state into which the entire race was brought
by Adam's transgression, the condemnation resting
upon all human beings, and the doom to which all
are liable. I count this whole theory from beginning
to end a sheer fiction of metaphysical dogmatists
and ecclesiastical system-builders, and a most dismal
and lugubrious one in all its parts. Nothing like
it appears ever to have been hinted by Christ, so
far as we have any record of him, his teachings,
or his labors, and nothing can be found in all the
New Testament Scriptures from which a plausible
inference can be drawn in support of it, excepting
a few expressions of the Apostle Paul, and these
must be interpreted in their most literal and
arbitrary sense to serve such an end rather than
in that allegorical, typical sense designed by their
author to teach some great truth, principle, or law

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 339

relating to that "life of the Spirit in Christ Jesus
which makes men free from the law of sin and
death."

Now any careful, candid, intelligent student of
the 5th Chapter of Romans and the 15th Chapter
of F'irst Corinthians, where the passages often
flippantly quoted in support of the hypothesis in
question are found — any such student, unbiassed
by sectarian narrowness and predilections, and free
from the trammels of traditionary interpretations
and the usage of many generations, must see,
without a shadow of a doubt, that the purpose and
aim of the writer, who, above all his contemporaries,
stood first and foremost for a rational, practical,
spiritual religion as opposed to all ecclesiastical
assumption, speculative mysticisms, old-time philoso-
phy, and outgrown theology, were essentially and
primarily what I have indicated, and not what the
creed-makers in the article before us and elsewhere
have suborned them to be. There is no intima-
tion in the chapters specified, or in any chapter
of his many epistles, that Paul believed or thought
for a moment that Adam was absolutely holy and
perfect to begin with ; or that he was originally
immortal in any other sense or manner than all
men now are ; or that his nature was radically
changed from good to bad by his transgression ;
or that he was less capable of righteous living
after than before he ate the forbidden fruit ; or
that his offspring were to be deemed guilty by
reason of his act and punished therefor ; or that
they were totally vitiated, became "averse to all

340 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

good and prone to all evil " for the same reason ;
or that in consequence of what he did when over-
come by temptation they would be less inclined
or less able to "do justly, love mercy, and walk
humbly," or more liable to go into the paths of
disobedience than they otherwise would have been,
or than he was in his first estate. The great
Apostle taught none of these things, not even by
implication. They have all been surmised, invented,
put into definite propositions, and ascribed to him
by those who knew little or nothing of the leading
thought which ran through the passages alluded
to, or of the great moral and spiritual ideas or
truths that they were designed to embody and
make available to the need of those to whom he
was writing, and of all in any age or time to
whom they should come as testimonies of the
wisdom, love, and grace of God, the heavenly
Father of all mankind.

What the thought of the Apostle was, what
the proper meaning of those portions of his letters
that have been so egregiously misinterpreted and
falsified, is, to my mind, perfectly obvious and
reasonable, when considered from his point of view
and in the light of his personal experience. He
undoubtedly accepted, as in some sense true, the
Mosaic account of the genesis of the human race.
To him Adam was the first human being that
ever appeared on the earth and the paternal pro-
genitor of all mankind. Through or by him they
all came into the world, possessing naturally the
same original constitution, the same appetites, pro-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. ' 341

pensities, passions, the same liability to temptation
and sin, the same capacity for virtue and holiness
of life, the same moral obligations and responsi-
bilities that characterized him. He, in his igno-
rance and weakness, being tempted, committed sin,
and according to the laws of the divine order,
incurred just condemnation and the righteous
penalty for wrong-doing, which in Scripture lan-
guage is denominated ''death." His descendants
have done likewise, and have shared with him the
condemnation and penalty. By him as a common
ancestor they derived existence, were endowed
with a common fallible nature, and made subject
to good and evil by reason of the faculties and
possibilities which came originally through interven-
ing generations from him. In this sense and only
in this sense were they made sinners by him, or,
as it is sometimes phrased, "fell in Adam."

Now in contrast with this idea of Adam as the
natural head of the human race, through or by
whom, in the manner set forth, his posterity fell
into sin and were brought into condemnation, is
the idea of Christ as their spiritual head, the
second or regenerate Adam by the grace and free
gift of God. Such as he was and is all men may
become by the renewing power of the self-same
Spirit which dwelt in him ; that is Christlike. By
what he was and did, — by his truth, his wisdom,
his love, his whole mediatorial, helpful, saving
work, they are born from above, are rendered
morally and spiritually new creatures in him, as in
their unregenerate, carnal estate they were sinners

342 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in Adam. This is the whole of it ; and it is
deplorable that speculative theologians out of their
misconceptions and imaginations should have manu-
factured such a horrible doctrine as the " Fall of
Man" into total depravity, and that the church
should have been handicapped and cursed with it
for more than a thousand years. For the primitive
Christian view of this whole matter I refer my
readers to Article II of my proposed platform, page
III of this volume, also to Discourses XVIII-XX,
Vol. I.

"lo. The condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such,
that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural
strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God;
wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and
acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ pre-
venting [preceding] us, that we may have a good will, and
working with us, when we have that good will."

The combined mystification, error, and deception
of this Article can be exposed and cleared away
by a few plain questions. Does God ever require
good will and (]:ood works of mankind which He
has not in some way given them the ability to
render and perform .'* Not unless He is a tyrant
more unscrupulous and merciless than Pharaoh of
old or Haynau of modern times. Was Adam before
the "Fall" able by his own natural strength and
good works, without divine help, to do what was
pleasant and acceptable to God .'* Or, can any
human being do anything without somewhat of
God's strength and grace to help him ? Can he
sow or reap temporal fruit or grain ? Can he even

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 343

retain the very breath of his earthly life ? Of course
not. Then why set up mysterious distinctions
about what man can or cannot do without God's
helping grace, and his working with us ? And
suppose a Jew, a Pagan, an Atheist, does justly
and loves mercy, feeds the hungry, clothes the
naked, ministers to the needy and suffering, as set
forth in Matt. xxv. 35-40, are not these works as
good and as pleasing and acceptable to God as if
done by a Christian ? My creed says, yes ; but
this Article says, no. Let the candid reader judge
between the two. The truth is, that this dogma
of man's moral inability as a consequence of
Adam's sin is pure fiction, whereby the credulous
are deluded and the easy-going wrong-doer has his
conscience lulled to undisturbed repose. Why
should one try to do what he has no power to do "^

"II. We are accounted righteous before God, only for the
merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and
not for our own works and deservings. Wherefore, that we
are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and
full of comfort.'-

Here again theological subtlety and moral pur-
blindness override common sense and common
justice, as well as Gospel truth. There is as little
Scripture as reason in the notion that Christ's
merits are or can be credited to us on any ground
whatever. His merits were and are his own. They
are not ours because we believe in him. God
cannot regard us as righteous unless we are so, in
spirit and in truth. To do this would falsify the

344 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

facts in the case, would subvert the moral order
of the world. " He that doeth righteousness," not
he that hath faith in another's righteousness, "is
righteous, even as he (Christ) is righteous." The
faith that justifies us is a faith that works by love,
purifying the heart, regenerating the character,
transforming the life. The faith in Christ that
saves us is a faith that makes us Christlike. It is
personal virtue, worth, holiness, that God requires
of each and every one, not that which is transferred
from another, Indeed, virtue, worth, holiness, is not
transferable any further than it inspires, quickens,
generates the same qualities. Every injunction of
the Master, every perceptive duty urged by Him, con-
templates personal obligation and personal obedience.
Such too is the lesson of the parable of the Prodigal
Son. The justifying faith in this case was that faith
in the father's love and yearning desire for his boy's
return, that brought him to repentance, that drew
him to his childhood's home, that insured him a
welcome there, that gave him peace. This is the
true doctrine of justification by faith, the only
doctrine that finds warrant in reason or Scripture.
Any other is not only not wholesome but mis-
chievous, and can furnish no comfort to souls
animated by the spirit and life of Christ.

Further discussion of the XXXIX Articles is
reserved for my next Discourse.

DISCOURSE XXI,

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

" Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the
faith ; not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments
of men that turn from the truth." — Tt'fus i. 13, 14.

As the present Discourse is to be devoted to
the further discussion of the subject under consid-
eration in the last one, I place at its head the
same text that was there employed ; it being
equally applicable to what I have to say in both
cases. The more important and especially dis-
tinguishing features of the Protestant Episcopal
Church Creed appear in the Articles already exam-
ined and commented upon at considerable length.
The remaining ones, requiring less extended notice,
will be more readily and summarily treated and
adjudged. The discussion continues in regular order
from the point of suspension.

Articles 12 and 13 declare ** that good works,
which are the fruits of faith, and follow after
justification," "are pleasing and acceptable to God
zn Christ,'' that is, not inherently and for their own
sake but for Christ's sake ; and that such good works
done before justification, and hence without the
inspiration of Christ's spirit, ''are not pleasant to

346 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

God," ''but have the nature of sin." From such
declarations and the distinctions and limitations
involved in them I can but re-affirm and urge anew
the utter and most emphatic dissent expressed in
reference to the three preceding Articles. The
idea that good works, honestly and conscientiously
performed, right actions and virtuous deeds, can
be otherwise than praiseworthy and acceptable to
God, for their own inherent worth and not by reason
of any mystical relation to Christ, is profoundly
repugnant and offensive to my own best judgment^
as I have no doubt it is to the fundamental prin-
ciples of sound morality and to the most unques-
tionable teachings of Jesus, his Evangelists, and
early Apostles. And so I dismiss at once the
Articles which affirm or imply otherwise.

The 14th Article is a truthful, well-deserved
protest against the doctrine of " Works of Super-
erogation," so persistently taught and urged by
the Roman Catholic Church since the Twelfth
Century, when it was first promulgated ; the doc-
trine ** that there actually existed an immense
treasure of merit, composed of pious deeds and
virtuous actions which the saints had performed
beyond what was necessary for their own salvation,
and which were applicable for the benefit of others ;
that the guardian and dispenser of this precious
treasure was the Roman pontiff, who was empow-
ered to assign to such as he thought proper a
portion of this inexhaustible source of merit suited
to their respective guilt and sufficient to deliver
them from the punishment due to their crimes."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 34T

So mighty and deplorable is the power of super-
stition over the minds and hearts of men that this
doctrine, most absurd in its nature and pernicious
in its effects, has held sway in the church which
originated it for more than six hundred years, and
is still maintained as one of the effective means of
promoting its own narrow, sectarian ends and aims.
This in itself is an all-sufficient reason for its con-
demnation, and the English church may be justly
honored for lifting its voice of dissent and censure
against it. Credit to whom credit is due.

The 15th Article affirms the sinlessness of Christ
while declaring the peccability of all other beings
wearing the human form, "although baptized and
born again in Christ." There is too little that is
objectionable in this to require special considera-
tion. In accepting it, however, as a general state-
ment I should retain the right of giving it my own
interpretation and application. The i6th Article
concerning "sin after baptism" may be passed by
with the same comment, though I deem the sub-
ject too unimportant to appear in a standard of
faith. Moreover, as it stands, it is cumbered with
a mass of theological verbiage which is offensive
both to my taste and judgment.

The 17th Article treats of "Predestination and
Election," and demands more elaborate and careful
examination. That it may be the more intelligently
discussed I give the remarkable manifesto in full.

" Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God,,
whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid,) He
hath constantly decreed, by His counsel, secret to us, to-

348 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen
in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to
everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honor. Wherefore
they, which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God,
be called according to God's purpose by His Spirit working
in due season; they, through grace, obey the calling; they
be justified freely; they be made sons of God by adoption;
they be made like the image of His only begotten Son Jesus
Christ; they walk religiously in good works; and at length,
by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.

" As the godly consideration of predestination, and our
election in Christ, is full of secret, pleasant, and unspeakable
comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the
working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the
flesh and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind
to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly
establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be
enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle
their love towards God; so, for curious and carnal persons,
lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their
eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most danger-
ous downfall, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into
desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no
less perilous than desperation.

" Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise
as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture ; and,
in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we
have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God."

This is a long, tedious, circumvolved article of
distinctly Calvinistic character, embodying a doc-
trine so fundamental, so central to a long prevail-
ing theory of God and the universe of souls, and
so obnoxious withal to reason, ethics, and Scrip-
ture, that it requires more than a passing notice —
requires extended and critical examination. Let us

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 849

look at it with a clear vision and in all candor
under several important heads : —

1. Predestination, we are told, is ** the everlast-
ing purpose of God," formed "before the founda-
tions of the earth were laid," 'to deliver from
curse and damnation " such as He had chosen out of
mankind unto everlasting salvation and never-failing
felicity. From which it logically follows that when
Adam was created, God foresaw, and, as the Infi-
nite Designer of all events and destinies, fore-
doomed the so-called fall of the new-born bein^g,
and, through him, of all his posterity, into that
state of curse and damnation from which He at
the same time decreed the deliverance of a chosen
few, to be made "the Sons of God by adoption," and
"attain everlasting felicity." And foreseeing and
foredooming all men to the condition set forth,
He, in decreeing the salvation of an elected few
in Christ, virtually decreed the continued curse
and damnation of all the untold millions of the
non-elect, and their consignment to the pains and
agonies of hell forever. The article under notice
does not state this horrible doctrine in so many
words but it implies and involves it all the same.
To elect and ordain the few to never-endins: life
and blessedness, passing by the many and leaving
them to their fate, is really and indubitably to elect
and ordain them to never-ending death and misery.

2. This doctrine fixes, beyond all question or
peradventure, beyond all possibility of increase or
diminution in either direction, the number of the
saved and lost to all eternity. Nothing in the nature

350 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of things can change the absolute decrees of the
-all-perfect God. What He determines, stands
fast and sure forevermore. Those doomed to be
lost can never be redeemed ; those elected to be
saved can by no possibility be lost. What a dis-
suasive is this doctrine to all moral effort ! What
an argument for the futility of all endeaver to
save men from sin and its fearful consequences in
time and in eternity! This feature of predestina-
tion ought to secure its swift and irreversible con-
demnation and expurgation from all creeds claiming
to be framed in the name of Christ and for the
promotion of his Gospel.

3. The consideration of this doctrine of predes-
tination is "full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable
comfort to all godly persons," the article in review
declares. Which, being rationally interpreted, means
that it is perfectly delightful to the elect to medi-
tate upon their own happy destiny, and upon the
wretchedness and woe of the non-elect through ages
unnumbered yet to be. Could utter, heartless, sel-
fishness— could diabolic pleasure in others' misery
be (unconsciously perhaps) more emphatically eulo-
gized and divinized than by such a declaration ?
Are those capable of such a comfort and delight
in any proper sense "godly" persons? Godly they
may be after the manner of Moloch, god of war,
who rejoiced in the pain and misery engendered
by bloodshed and slaughter, but not after the spirit
of Him whose most befitting name is Love, " who
will have all men to be saved, who according to the
teaching of the ancient prophet taketh no pleasure

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 361

in the death (degradation, pain, sorrow) of the
wicked," and who, as Jesus represents Him, is
ever pitiful and kind, commiserating the suffering
and distress even of the unthankful and evil, and
seeking to enhance the welfare and happiness of
every creature He hath made.

4. "For curious and carnal persons," it is declared,
"to have in mind this thought of God's predestina-
tion is a most dangerous thing, whereby the devil
doth thrust them into desperation, or wretchlessness
of unclean living, no less perilous than desperation."
Exactly what this means it were difficult, even for
an English church prelate or other polemic, to tell.
Is it that the truth of God, the divine appoint-
ments and decrees in this respect, are not to be
proclaimed to the non-elect lest they become more
carnal, depraved, desperate, wretchless of unclean
living than they now are } But was not that,
according to the doctrine, exactly what they were
created for — what they were foredoomed to, "from
before the foundations of the world were laid," —
an ever-continuing, ever-deepening possession and
expression of qualities so obnoxious and deplorable }
Ought they to be left ignorant of God's purposes
concerning them and led to believe it possible for
them ever to be saved when it is not ? Is it out
of divine order that such persons should in this
present state of being be made to realize what
they were created for, and so fulfill, as far as pos-
sible, even here the infinite design concerning them ?
I ask these questions in order to show the irration-
ality, the absurdity of the doctrine in question upon

352 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the point under notice, to say nothing of its
impugnment of the character- of God and of His
relation to the children of men as Father, which»
however, will be made presently to appear.

5. The last paragraph of the Article asserts
very reasonably the duty of receiving God's prom-
ises in such wise as they are set forth in the
Scriptures, and of doing His holy will as therein
declared and made known to us. But in the per-
formance of that duty I am sure, beyond all manner
of doubt, that we shall repudiate and cast away as
unworthy of belief or acceptance the delusive, demor-
alizing, impious doctrine of "Predestination and Elec-
tion," as formulated in the first two paragraphs of
the same Article. For those Scriptures, neither in
their general teaching and spirit nor in any express
declaration, properly interpreted, furnish any sub-
stantial ground upon which to base a belief in that
doctrine, but ample and impregnable ground for dis.
owning and rejecting it forever. The Scriptures
represent God as good, just, merciful to all men,
as desiring and seeking the highest good of all,
and as administering the government of the whole
universe of souls with a parental wisdom and love
that leaves none uncared for and unblessed in the
richness and universality of His all-beneficent provi-
dence. They represent Christ as not only possess-
ing the likeness of God, but as animated beyond
measure by the Spirit of God, whereby he was
rendered capable of speaking the truth of God, of
reflecting His moral perfections upon all classes
and conditions of men, without regard to character

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 353

or conduct — to their election or non-election, of
inaugurating and carrying forward a work of uplift-
ing and redemption which shall not cease until
universal holiness and happiness were achieved —
until all tribes and nations and peoples of every
kind and name should be made voluntarily subject
to him, and *' God be all in all." They represent
mankind without exception as children of God,
created in His image — as moral agents, the subjects
of divine law and discipline, capable of right-doing
as of wrong-doing, and accountable to God for their
thought and conduct. All instructions, commands,
precepts, injunctions, are addressed to them on that
basis, and all duty has pertinency and force for the
reason that those upon whom it lays its claims are
morally able to hear its voice, to respond to its
appeals, and to obey its requirements. Is all this
mere seeming — a pretence, a deceit, a snare for
souls .^ It manifestly is, if the doctrine of the 17th
Article of the Episcopal Church Creed is true.
For of what possible use is preaching, moral teach-
ing, inculcating moral and spiritual truth, proclaim-
ing God's love and pardoning grace, if a certain
number of the race were predestined from the
beginning to eternal life and blessedness, while all
others were as certainly predestined to eternal
death and woe ? Alas, for such spiritual guides as
we are now contemplating, who, for heavenly bread,.
give us ecclesiastical dogmatism and sophistry, and
who, by the traditions and speculations of men,
make void the commandments of God.

354 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

6. And one thought more upon this subject
before I dismiss it. Consider what dishonor this
doctrine of Foreordination and Election casts upon
the name and character of God. According to it,
He has decreed that a few of the sentient, intel-
ligent, responsible creatures of His forming hand
shall share His favor and His blessedness forever
and ever, be made partakers of His divine life and
of His unfading glory world without end ; while
He has doomed the rest — the vast majority of
men, or left them, if one like the phrase better,
though the moral quality of the two is essentially
the same, to perish everlastingly, — to wander for-
ever away from him in sin and wretchedness, "keep-
ing them in existence," as has been said, *• only to
suffer misery." Is not such a being — a being who
could thus foredoom untold millions of human beings
to hopeless agony and despair, or who, knowing
beforehand their awful, their appalling destiny, could
still give them conscious existence, — is not such a
being worthy rather of execration than of adoring wor-
ship and praise ? Is he not to be classed with those
gods of heathen, savage tribes, who are said to
delight in malevolence, barbarity, and revenge,
rather than to be identified as the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ ; Father too, of all the sons and
daus:hters of men ? The doctrine under examina-
tion is not only unreasonable, immoral, unscriptural;
it is profane, irreverent, blasphemous.

The 1 8th of the Thirty-nine Articles declares that
all persons are accursed who presume to say that
a man is saved by the law or profession that he

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 355

makes, or who shapes his life by that law or pro-
fession, or by the light of nature. For it adds,
*' Holy Scriptures doth set out unto us only the
name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved."
This Article is perfectly consistent with the pre-
ceding one, but has little or no significance or
force with those persons who reject that. There
is undoubtedly some sense in which Peter's declara-
tion, as reported in the book of Acts, is true,
''There is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved," but it
can be in no such narrow, dogmatic, exclusive
sense as the reference to it implies. To prove
this it is only necessary to quote another declara-
tion of Peter in the same book ; *' Of a truth I
perceive that God is no respecter of persons ;
For in every nation he that feareth Him and
worketh righteousness is accepted with him."

Of the article as a whole there are several things
of an objectionable nature that may be said. i. The
New Testament in both its letter and its spirit
admonishes us against cursing or holding as accursed
any of our fellow-beings and especially on account
of a difference of creed or opinion. Its word is
"Bless and curse not." 2. It teaches us to respect
honest, conscientious well-doing, according to one's
own light, however defective that light may be or
imperfect the duty performed, 3. It informs us that
professing the name of Christ is of no worth with-
out cherishing his spirit and obeying his precepts.
" Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the
things that I say ? " was the Master's own rebuke

356 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of those faulty in this respect. 4. While it makes
perfect and absolute righteousness of thought and
conduct essential to a perfect manhood after the
pattern of Christ, it also approves and commends
lesser degrees of excellence, and estimates all types
and forms of virtue and piety according to their
worth when tested by the circumstances attending
them, the light received, and the motives of the
one who possesses and illustrates them. The Arti-
cle gives no heed to these paramount considera-
tions, but, defiant of them all and of the whole
genius of the Gospel, sets its seal of hopeless
damnation upon the great overwhelming majority
of the human race, whatever their virtues or nobler
qualities of character, consigning them to eternal
perdition because they do not in some prescribed,
technical, ecclesiastical way believe or act in the
name of Christ, under the assumption that this
name has in it some magic charm, some miraculous
power to deliver the soul from impending doom
and secure to it eternal salvation. And all this,
strange to say and to believe, when the fate of all
men was fixed by divine decree or by election and
non-election "from the beginning or ever the earth
was," long before there was any Christ to believe
in or any believers to take his name upon their
lips or to their hearts, and irrespective of any
regard for him whatsoever. Such inconsistency
and folly not infrequently characterize the dicta
of the creed-makers in every age of Christian his-
tory. From everything of the sort "may the good
Lord deliver us."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 357

The 19th and 20th Articles, treating of The
Church and its Authority, are unobjectionable in
their place, but their place is among the Rules
and Regulations pertaining to the administration of
ecclesiastical affairs, and not in a Statement of
fundamental Christian faith, or in a Declaration
of essential div^ine principles of truth and right-
eousness.

The 2 1st on the Authority of Councils, savors
too much of sacerdotalism and priestly domination
to satisfy an intelligent believer in the Congrega-
tional system of church government, or in Paul's
exposition of the nature and use of that liberty of
thought and action whervvith Christ maketh free —
the liberty of the sons of God.

The 22d, condemnatory of the Romish dogma of
Purgatory, Pardons, the Worship of images, etc., is
true and proper enough, but not of sufficient
account to be made a foundation-stone of a Chris-
tian church or a bond of fellowship in a Christian
denomination.

The 23d and 24th contain some truth touching
the office of the ministry, the proper preaching of
the word, the conduct of ceremonial observances,
etc., though too hierarchical in regard to the legiti-
mate function of the minister, in making no allow-
ance or provision for lay preaching, and in granting
to the individual members of the church not form-
ally consecrated by the laying on of hands no
liberty of prophesying, of imparting instruction,
or of exhortation in the regular service of the
sanctuary.

368 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The 25th Article concerning the Sacraments is not
particularly objectionable, though ascribing to those
which it claims were ordained and given special
significance by Christ, a sacredness and an efficacy
which they do not and cannot, in the nature of
things and in the law of the soul's life, possess.

The 26th upon unworthy ministers and their min-
istrations, contains a modicum of truth clothed in
unnecessary verbiage, but assigns too much sanctity
to the office of the ministry and demands too little
of the incumbent of that office.

The 27th and 28th treating respectively of Bap-
tism and the Lord's Supper are open to the same
observation made with reference to the 25th.

The 29th is a statement of a not very important
fact and the 30th is a sensible rule for the admin-
istration of the Lord's Supper ; both of them too
unimportant to be given the position they occupy
in this popular and widely received platform of
religious faith.

Article 31 upon ''the One Oblation of Christ,"
referring to his cruel death on Calvary, has in it
too much of the idea of an angry and otherwise
unappeasable God to command the approval of one
who, while believing that the whole life and char-
acter as well as the death of that personage was
a testimonial to his sublime spirit of self-sacrifice*
has such complete, unswerving faith in the eternal
goodness that he cannot entertain for a moment
the thought that the Divine Being, Infinite Father
of all men, needs to be placated or in any way
propitiated in order to make Him willing and ready

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 359

to forgive and save even the most vile and
unworthy of His human children. The doctrine of
Vicarious Atonement, as understood and proclaimed
by the self-styled evangelical churches, is an offense
to my whole moral and religious nature, as well as
to my judgment, as I have elsewhere set forth, and
I have no occasion to discourse further upon the
subject.

Articles 32, 33, 34, and 35 concerning " the mar-
riage of Priests," " Excommunicate persons," **the
Traditions of the Church" and " Homilies " may be
dismissed as containing nothing worth contending
against, and as allowable for those whose moral
status can be raised and religious life promoted by
such things.

The 36th Article relating to the "Consecration
of Bishops and Ministers," appertains wholly to
the English Hierarchy and is of no concern to
those who hold that the highest and best church
government, like that of the state, is "of the people
for the people and by the people," regardless of
bishops as that is of kings.

The 37th was originally framed for the purpose
of adjusting the relations of church and state to
each other under a system which united the two
in the bonds of an unholy, unchristian wedlock.
It has been greatly modified by our American
Episcopalians to meet the changed political condi-
tions existing here. I pass it by as of little con-
sequence.

Article 38 protests against the "community of
goods" as held and practiced by certain classes of

360 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

professing Christians, the same being it is claimed
in contravention of the right, title, possession of
property, but enjoins the duty of liberal alms-
giving for the relief of the poor and needy ; yet it
neither recognizes, recommends, nor suggests any
Christian obligation to fraternalize all human inter-
ests, to limit the selfishness so often displayed in
the accumulation and use of material gains, or to
seek the re-organization of the social relations of
men in order to bring them into accord with the
principles of the Gospel and the great law of love
to God and man.

The 39th and last Article of the series condemns
what it calls "vain and rash swearing" but justifies
legal oathtaking *' when the magistrate requireth, in
a cause of faith and charity," although the plain,
unqualified injunction of the Master was, "Swear
not at ally In this as in many other respects
noted there is a broad contrast between the declared
fundamentals of the Church of England and related
Communions and those I have formulated upon which
to build the regenerate Church of Christ, Which of
the two is most accordant with the teachings of
the New Testament and the practice of the primi-
tive church I leave my readers to judge for them-
selves.

In closing the examination of this long-drawn-
out creed of the Protestant Episcopal Church, I
have this general and, to my mind, most disparaging
criticism to make, to wit : that it bears no definite,
clear, uncompromising testimony to the vital and
indispensable importance of righteous, holy living —

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 361

of Christlikeness of character and conduct, as the
great end and object for which the church exists and
to the development and perfecting of which in its
adherents and in the world its chief energies should
be directed and its multiform activities employed.
How unlike is it in this respect to the teachings
of the Master and his early Apostles ! How little
is there in it of the Sermon on the Mount, of the
great law of love to God and man ! The things
that Jesus talked about most, that he most empha-
sized in precept, parable, injunction, command, and
appeal, it omits altogether or refers to only by
inference or implication. This is a fatal defect —
one that carries with it inevitable condemnation —
one that forever precludes it from acceptance as
the standard or platform of the reconstructed
church of Christ, in that new order of human life
which shall some day be established on the earth,
and under which

" All crimes shall cease and ancient frauds shall fail,
Returning justice lift aloft her scale;
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend."

DISCOURSE XXII.

BELIEFS OF THE GEBMAN PROTESTANT
CHURCHES.

" He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; But he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of
men, but of God." — Rom. W, 28, 29.

When Martin Luther, the celebrated German
Reformer of the Sixteenth Century, and his devoted
co-adjutors had roused multitudes of their fellow-
countrymen from slumbering acquiescence in respect
to the general polity and decretals of the Roman
ecclesiasticism, and inspired them with enthusiastic
and irreconcilable hostility to the Pope and his sub-
ordinate prelates, they very naturally soon became
possessed with the idea of organizing a new move-
ment, under which independent churches should be
established in the various civil and political divi-
sions of territory where they, by virtue of numbers
and royal favor, exercised predominating authority
and power. It was not the intention of Luther
himself, at the outset of his crusade, to break
wholly away from the Catholic hierarchy and set
up an opposing establishment of any sort ; but the
stern logic of events ere long made such a result

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 363^

inevitable. Nor, when he saw the issue approach-
ing and became thoroughly convinced that the
hoped-for reconcilation of the opposing forces was
an utter impossibility, did he wish that the recon-
structed ecclesiasticism or any organization under
it should take his distinctive name. Nevertheless,
his followers and those sympathizing with them
soon came to be called Lutherans, first by Eck,
one of the most bitter of the great Reformer's
opponents, then by Papists generally, and finally
by common consent of all parties.

But circumstances never favored the organic
unity of the dissenting and seceding multitudes,
nor the adoption of a uniform title by which all
classes of them should be designated and known.
They never withdrew their allegiance to the sev-
eral civil governments under which they lived, and
their polity and course of conduct were greatly
modified by the ruling power in each and every
given case. So that, in different provinces or prince-
doms of Germany, and in different countries of north-
ern Europe outside of German Supremacy, whatever
churches were formed assumed certain provincial
or national characteristics, grew up in a certain
degree of independency of one another, and not
infrequeutly took upon themselves different names.
There seemed to be in the beginning a preference
among all classes of reformers for the term Evan-
gelical, which continues largely to this day. At
the diet of Spire in 1529, where a formal protest was
made against the usurpations of the Papal chair, they
received the comprehensive name of Protestants,.

364 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

which, at a later clay, became employed to desig-
nate all those, whether disciples of Luther or not,
who rejected the claims and authority of the See at
Rome. In Poland and Austria the Reformed Church
was known by the official title of '* The Church
of the Augsburg Confession," of which Confession
more will be said presently. But the most widely
accepted designation of the great majority of those
who trace their ecclesiastical lineage back to the
distinguished German leader, is " the Evangelical
Lutheran Church," which may be regarded as
including, in a general way, all those who claim
to be the legitimate descendants and representa-
tives of him whose name they bear.

The several churches or branches of the Protest-
ant Church that were founded in the time of the
Reformation or immediately afterward, and have
continued unto the present day, all have a form
of mongrel or modified episcopacy for an ecclesi-
astical polity or mode of government ; but from
the beginning those in Europe have, as already
suggested, been so wedded to the state as to be
not only subject to the patronage but to the author-
ity of those occupying places of temporal power
in the respective countries or sovereignties within
whose jurisdiction they have had a place. These
crowned heads of greater or less dignity and impor
tance, emperors, kings, princes, dukes, or whatever
the titles they have borne, have in most cases,
claimed to be ex-officio bishops of high degree in
the church, but have usually condescended to
transfer their rights and prerogatives to Consis-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 36S

tories — bodies composed of the clergy and repre-
sentatives of the laity, in which was vested all
power of church government, both legislative and
administrative.

Much diversity not to say divergence of opinion
has prevailed, not only in the general Lutheran
communion but in its various subordinate branches,
and controversies in different departments of church
life have rendered it impossible to establish any
very detailed, coherent, and generally accepted
church polity, numerous changes having been made
from time to time in the past, and still likely to
be made, in their recognized formularies. It is not
my intention to treat these matters at any length
but simply to allude to them as existing in this
as in other departments of the nominal church of
Christ. They concern the incidentals of prevailing
ecclesiasticism ; my business is with its funda-
mentals and to them I now pass.

So far as I am informed or can ascertain the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, and its
offshots or corresponding churches in other coun-
tries, departed far less from the theology and
established doctrines of the Roman Catholics than
any other of the several religious bodies or schools
of thought, which, like that, may properly claim ta
derive their origin from the great upheaval of the
Sixteenth Century known in history as The Refor-
mation ; the leading ones being those founded by
Calvin, Zuingli, Arminius, Socinus, and Menno,.
in France, Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium. The
German churches accepted as substantially true the

W6 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ancient Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostles' Creeds,
the more essential features of which they repro-
duced under more satisfactory formularies in what
is known in the history of the church as "The
Augsburg Confession," the name of which was
derived from the • city in which it was originally
adopted and promulgated. This confession was
drawn up by Philip Melancthon, perhaps the most
dispassionate, candid, clearheaded, learned, and con-
scientious of the co-laborers of the great Luther
himself. It was first approved by a council of
divines at Wittenburg, and in their behalf presented
to a diet of nobles held at Augsburg, where it
received the sanction of the imperial court, and in
1530 was proclaimed authoritative in the churches
of the empire. For all the needful purposes of
this examination, I transcribe to these pages a
summary of this remarkable document as I find it
in McClintock and Strong's ** Cyclopaedia of Reli-
gious Knowledge."

After re-affirming in the most solemn and emphatic
manner the leading dogmas of the Nicene Creed,
"the holy Trinity," "original and hereditary sin,"
" which bringeth eternal death to all who are not
regenerated," " the incarnation of the Son," who is
declared to be "very God and very man," — all of
which assumptions I have sufficiently considered —
the Confession proceeds to state under two heads
other points of belief, consecutively epitomized as
follows: —

" Part I. (i) Acknowledges four Ecumenical
Councils: (2) Declares original sin to consist wholly

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 367

in concupiscence, [ evil desires or indwelling sin : ]

(3) Contains the substance of the Apostles' Creed:

(4) Declares that justification is the effect of faith,
exclusive of good works: (5) Declares the Word of
God and the Sacraments to be the means of con-
veying the Holy Spirit, but never without faith:
(6) That faith must produce good works purely in
obedience to God and not in order to the meriting
justification: (7) The true church consists of the
godly only: (8) Allows the validity of the sacra-
ments, though administered by the evil: (9) Declares
the necessity of infant baptism: (10) Declares the
real presence in the Eucharist, continued with the
elements only during the period of receiving, and
insists upon communion in both kinds: (11) Declares
absolution to be necessary, but not so particular
confession: (12) Against the Anabaptists: (13)
Requires actual faith in all who receive the Sacra-
ments: (14) Forbids to teach in the church, or to
administer the sacraments, without being lawfully
called: (15) Orders the observation of holy days
and ceremonies of the church: (16) Of civil matters
and marriage: (17) Of the resurrection, last judg-
ment, heaven and hell: (t8) Of free will: (19) That
God is not the author of sin : (20) That good works
are not altogether unprofitable: (21) Forbids the
invocation of saints.

"Part II. (i) Enjoins communion in both kinds,
and forbids the procession of the holy sacraments:
(2) Condemns the law of celibacy of priests: (3)
Condemns private masses, and enjoins that some
of the congregation shall always communicate with

368 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the priests: (4) Against the necessity of auricular
confession: (5) Against tradition and human cere-
monies: (6) Condemns monastic vows: (7) Dis-
criminates between civil and religious power, and
declares the power of the church to consist only
in preaching and administering the sacraments."

I. This Confession was framed and adopted at
a time when there was still some hope of recon-
ciliation between the Reformers and Papists, on
the ground of mutual concession upon points of con-
troversy. Melancthon, who drew it up, was a much
more moderate and prudent man than Luther,
and in formulating the document raised as few
issues as possible and passed silently over many
points of Luther's offensive radicalism. Its concilia-
tory tone and careful phraseology secured great
respect for it, especially from neutrals and moder-
ates on both sides. But it failed to induce the
ruling powers of the mother church to concede
enough to gain the object sought. When it became
manifest that the break between the two parties
was too serious ever to be healed, the conflict was
re-opened with increased vigor and virulence. The
Reformers saw that the warfare was a momentous
one and proceeded at once to organize their eccle-
siasticism as well as their theology in their own
way, and as in their judgment the crisis demanded.
In attempting to do this they found differences of
opinion to exist among themselves, which grew into
dissensions that not only menaced but prevented
that unity for which they had all fondly hoped.
Nevertheless, the great majority agreed to stand by

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 369

each other and work together on the Augsburg
platform, though, no doubt, with considerable toler-
ance towards each other and large freedom of pri-
vate interpretation and judgment.

2. Most of what I deem unworthy of acceptance
in this platform, including nearly all its leading
affirmations, has, I repeat, been sufficiently criti-
cized and condemned in preceding discourses. The
doctrine of Consubstantiation, however, is a new one
designed to supplant the Roman dogma of Tran-
substantiation, and hence demands a few moments
notice, though it is scarcely less irrational and
unscriptural, as Melancthon, Zuingli, and others of
the reform movement came subsequently to think.
The doctrine was that in the administration of the
Eucharist the substance of Jesus Christ was, by mira-
culous interposition, actually present in the bread
and wine during the observance of the rite and only
then, instead of the transmutation of those elements
into His veritable flesh and blood, as the Romanists
held. But this has no foundation or warrant save
in the imaginations or speculations of religious
visionaries and controversialists. As a matter of
fact, so far as the letter of Scripture is concerned,
the Romanists have the advantage of their oppo-
nents. But both parties are in unquestionable error.

3. Concerning those points of doctrine which sep-
arated the Lutherans from Calvin and his adherents,,
and which gave rise to a bitter controversy resulting
in a virtual break between the two parties involved^
and their subsequent organic independence of each
other, a few words of comment seem to be required.

370 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

To those immediately concerned the difference of
opinion and. belief was irreconcilable if not vital,
and forever precluded the possibility of mutual
harmony and co-operation in carrying forward the
work of the Reformed Church. In my judgment,
however, the difference was metaphysical and
scholastic rather than essential, and of no such
paramount importance as the contestants maintained.
It was much the same in nature and practical
moment as that which afterward divided the Armin-
ians and Calvinists, or which, from that time to
the present, has differentiated the extreme and
moderate Calvinists from each other. In all these
cases the bone of contention or cause of contro-
versy and independent action was Calvin's favorite
dogma of "Election and Reprobation" or of "Pre-
destination," as it was then termed, which, as
formulated by the Synod of Dort, is, "That God
hath chosen a certain member of the fallen race
of Adam in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, unto eternal glory * * * without the least
foresight of faith, good works, or any condition
performed by the creature; and that the rest of
mankind He was pleased to pass by and ordain to
dishonor and wrath for their sins, to the praise of
His vindictive justice." But at the same time those
who accepted and stood by this doctrine and those
who rejected and denounced it agreed that some-
how or other, in consequence of Adam's Fall, all
mankind became totally indisposed to holiness and
incapable of the least act of true righteousness,
except by the intervention of the Holy Spirit: that

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 371

no sinner ever did or ever will repent, believe,
and become what God requires, of his own free
choice, without such divine intervention overruling
his hereditary predisposition to evil ; that whatever
apparent and commonly understood good an unre-
generate person may do, it is no ground of hope
for acceptance with God as true righteousness ; that
all persons who die in sin, out of Christ, must be
lost forever. Even those most opposed to the doc-
trines of Predestination agreed substantially with
their opponents in believing that God clearly fore-
saw the Fall in Adam, the hereditary depravity of
all his posterity and consequent doom ; He clearly
foresaw precisely whom and the exact number that
the Divine Spirit would interpose to regenerate
and save, and also the remediless perdition of all
the rest. They furthermore agree with them in
believing that God, foreseeing all this, and know-
ing all this, yet proceeded to create incalculable
multitudes of sentient beings whose only possible
destiny was never-ending sin and misery. Now
what essential difference is there between the
doctrines of the two parties indicated ; what differ-
ence in the nature of things as respects either
the moral obligation and practical duty of men on
the one hand, or the character and honor of God
on the other ? And yet these parties kept up for
generations and indeed in their successors still keep
up a vigorous and oftentimes a bitter dispute on
such questions — questions growing out of their meta-
physical, abstract, speculations as — (i) Whether or
not God fore-ordained the specific results which

372 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

He foresaw would inevitably come to pass; — (2)
Whether or not man can do any kind of good that
will be acceptable to God ; anything to put himself
in the way of being regenerated by the Holy Spirit
in spite of his hereditary depravity ; — (3) Whether
Christ made an atonement for all mankind or for
those only who should be finally saved according
to the foreknowledge of God ; — (4) Whether he has
any natural ability, though with moral ability, to do
anything to further his own regeneration and redemp-
tion ; — (5) Whether or not Ministers of Christ,
believing that God either fore-ordained or foresaw
what the end would be — who and what number
would be saved and who and what number would
be damned — ought to address all men indiscrimi-
nately, sinners and saints alike, in that practical,
common-sense way which assumes that they each
and all possess a certain freedom of will, have some
power to do what God requires, to know and obey
His commandments. On these and kindred topics,
growing out of the Lutheran and Calvinist, or
Calvinist and Arminian speculative hypotheses, have
discussions been going on and belligerent attitudes
been maintained in different branches of the Protest-
ant Church from near the beginning of its existence.
And to what purpose ? What practical, moral, or
spiritual difference, I ask again, is there between
the opposing forces in the conflict ? Both are in
the wrong, if not in the mystical tenets which dis-
tinguish and separate them from each other, yet
palpably so in the far more important ones in which
they are united. On that common ground neither

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 373

of them can stand approved in the great judicatory
of eternal Truth.

4. In regard to the distinctive ecclesiastical
features of the Lutheran Church, it seems to me
that it proved itself weak and ineffective, accom-
plishing little in the way of honoring and promoting
in the world that "liberty wherewith Christ maketh
free." It threw off the tyranny of the Pope and
his allied sovereigns but entered into relations with
temporal princes and potentates scarcely less exact-
ing in their demands, for the sake of their patronage
and help. "The supreme rulers of every Lutheran
State," says Mosheim, "are clothed with the dig-
nity and perform the functions of supremacy in
the church." Thus, while holding theoretically to
the doctrine of "the universal priesthood of all
believers " and maintaining that " all hierarchical
organizations are unchristian " these Sixteenth Cent-
ury reformers became voluntarily subject to the
civil power, even in the administration of religious
affairs. They had no scruples against the union of
church and state and none in calling upon the
the state to aid them by force and arms in carry-
ing out their various designs. As in the days of
Constantine the cross led the sword through blood
to victory, so was it not infrequently with them
under the new dispensation. They trusted much
to the civil power of the countries in which they
predominated, paid it willing homage in return for
favors received, allowed its sovereign head to con-
vene by royal decree their ecclesiastical councils
and its respresentatives to participate in them, and

374 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

yielded cheerful obedience to its requirements.
They seemed to regard the church practically as
the servant and handmaid of the state, to give it
sanctity and support, and in no wise to interfere
with its ambitious projects, or hold up to it a
high ideal of civic and national righteousness. So
dependent did the church of that day come to be
upon the state, and so subservient to it, that much
of its power for good in the world, by way of advanc-
ing a pure and transforming Christianity, was lost.
In the particular respect under notice — in respect
to the attitude of the German Reformed Church
toward civil government based upon military force
and the war-making power, it had little to commend
it to the favor of those richly imbued with the spirit
of Christ ; it had made but a short day's march
from the Babylon of Romanism whence it came.

5. And much the same judgment must be ren-
dered concerning that church if we consider thought-
fully the theological doctrines which it avowed and
promulgated. As has been already stated it declared
unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly its adhesion to the
three ancient creeds held as authoritative in the
Roman communion. Nor did it in any of its state-
ments or confessions of faith ever proclaim or
profess anything essentially different — more reason-
able, more just, more Scriptural, more Christly.
From none of those statements or confessions does
it appear that God ever purposed or desired to
save more than a favored minority of the human
race ; or that regeneration and salvation consist in
making men and women morally and spiritually

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 375

Christlike in thought, in deed, in character, but
chiefly in preparing them for and taking them to
the heaven of a future world ; that personal right-
eousness is in itself of any great importance ; that
obedience to the law of love to God and man is the
paramount obligation ; but that to believe certain
dogmas and to observe certain rites is indispens-
able to acceptance with God here and hereafter.
Nor does it appear from any of them that the
church can or ought to attempt to institute an
order of social and civil life essentially higher and
better than that which now exists — more fraternal,
beneficient, and divine ; or that the church has any
authority or commission to lead all other agencies
and activities in bringing the kingdom of right-
eousness, brotherhood, and peace into the world.
In this particular there is little to give the Reformed
Lutheran Church pre-eminence; little to justify
the claim made for it, that its rise and the move-
ment it represented marked one of the most impor-
tant and noteworthy events in human history —
the opening of a transcendently glorious era in the
progress of mankind.

6. But if the movement thus represented is not
entitled to the celebrity and renown generally
ascribed to it by reason of its ecclesiasticism, its
general policy in relation to civil government, its
theology, or its maintenance of a high standard
of personal and social righteousness, is it entitled
to them for any reason that can satisfy a high-
minded Christian man; one who is resolved to test
all things by the principles of eternal truth as seen

376 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in the light that shines upon the ways of men from
Bethlehem and Calvary ? I believe it is. And upon
the ground that it was in a certain definite and
highly important sense a veritable arraignment of
a tyrannical usurpation which had held the world
in thrall a thouand years ; the breaking away
from a despotism that for ages had throttled human
thought and speech and shut the gates of knowledge
as well as of mercy on mankind ; the beginning
of the end of a system of religious bigotry and
domination which can never again rise to supremacy
while time endures. Moreover it finds equal or
perhaps greater justification and cause for being
honored on the positive side. Its proclamation of
the right of private judgment in matters of religion,
of liberty of conscience, and of an open Bible for
all men, prepared the way for a new era to the
coming dwellers on the face of the earth, and
made straight and plain the high road for all lovers
of freedom, of truth, of righteousness, of man, and
of God, to walk in evermore. What if those making
this proclamation were not aware of the length
and breath and height and depth of meaning con-
tained in what they afifirmed ; what if they shrank
from the application and use of the principles they
avowed, builded better than they knew, and
were unconscious of what their utterances would
lead to as the years went by ! It matters not. The
proclamation was made and was destined to stand.
The truth was set free and it has gone forth, East,
West, North, South, and will go, till it encircles
the globe and gains the victory, in all lands and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 377

climes, among all peoples. "God moves in a mys-
terious way, His wonders to perform." He spoke
to these German Reformers. Something of His
word they heard and sent it abroad to quicken and
redeem the world. All honor to them for their
hallowed ministry. All praise to God, the Giver of
all good, who called them to that ministry and
directed it to great and glorious issues for man-
kind.

DISCOURSE XXIII.

PBESBYTEBIANS, CONGBEGATIONALISTS, AND
BEGULAB BAPTISTS.

" I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits', that
blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fullness of
the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved ;
as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer ;
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." — J^om. xi. 25, 26.

John Calvin, a native of Noyon, near Paris,
France, was a contemporary of Martin Luther and
his fellow-reformers, whose labors and testimonies
in the cause of religion were reviewed and judged
in my last Discourse. In a very important sense
he was their co-adjutor — one of the great leaders of
the movement called Protestantism, whose influence
will be felt and whose names will be honored as
long as the world shall stand or the memory of
noble deeds endure. As already indicated he differed
from Luther on certain points of doctrine, and
especially upon that of Election and Reprobation.
He was more radically anti-Romanistic than his
German colleague, though not more uncompromis-
ing in his testimony against Papal usurpation and
corruption. He was a strong-minded, learned,

primitivp: Christianity. 379

logical, consistent theologian, who disdained to
shrink from the legitimate conclusions of his own
premises or to equivocate in stating and defending
them. The first churches founded by him or through
his influence took on his distinctive theological
character ; were composed of what have since been
termed High or Extreme Calvinists, which, in my
judgment, are the only true or self-consistent Cal-
vinists.

It was not long, however, before a considerable
number of Calvin's disciples, or of those who were
deemed such, began to question some of his more
radical opinions and finally to reject them altogether,
resulting in the formation of churches and denom-
inations which, though representing more moderate
views, still claimed to belong to the Calvinistic
family, and may be regarded accordingly. While
avowing belief in the widely known " Five Points "
of him whose name they bear, they claim the right
tof interpreting them as their judgment and moral
sense may dictate, responsible only to God for
the conclusions to which they in good conscience
come. In matters ouside of strict theology — in
church government, in ceremonial observance, etc.,
they differ much from each other and separate
into varying parties, sects, or schools of ecclesias-
ticism, respectively. Thus we find that there are
Calvinistic Episcopalians, Baptists, Congregational-
ists, Methodists, scattered here and there through-
out Protestantdom, each maintaining a distinctive
organization based upon doctrines, principles, cere-
monials, or modes of administration, irrespective of

380 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

those tenets derived from the French Reformer, in
which they, nominally at least, are agreed. It will
not be possible for me to treat all these several
classes separately, but I will bring those most
closely allied together, selecting for examination a
statement of faith which, I think, will fairly repre-
sent those immediately concerned. In doing this,
however, I shall bear in mind the fact that in the
churches which I name there is a vast amount of
dissent, sometimes to the extent of complete denial,
from the recognized and professed standards them-
selves. I will pass in review

I. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists.

These two Denominations are distinguished from
-each other chiefly in the matter of church govern-
ment. With the former the ruling power is the
Presbytery, composed of elders or presbyters who
are chosen by the people but who must be ordained
to their office by properly constituted predecessors,
while with the latter the people have a direct
voice in the management of affairs, corresponding
to democratic methods in concerns of state. Each
of these has its merits and demerits, which I do
not propose to discuss at present further than to
say that the merits of the two, together with some
in Episcopacy, ought to be combined, to the exclu-
sion of the demerits, as will be the case in the
church of the future, which will be a return to the
ccclesiasticism of Apostolic times. In regard to
•doctrine it is proper to state that there are so

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 381

many shades of interpretation and opinion in the
bodies named that no one confession of faith can be
found that will justly represent each and every com-
municant, and I am obliged by the limitations of
time and space to take for examination and criticism
one which I think is expressive of the convictions
of the large majority of those desirous of being
known as either Presbyterians of Congregationalists.
[I use the term Congregationalists in this discussion
in its popular though inappropriate sense as applying
only to those of the Trinitarian school, well aware
that our Unitarian brethren are equally entitled to
the name.] I am inclined to think that the Creed
and accompanying Declaration which the Professors
of the Andover Theological Seminary are required
to subscribe before entering upon the duties of their
office, will serve my purpose as well as any, and
with as much justice as any to all persons and
parties concerned. Though regarded as strictly a
Congregationalist manifesto, it is a fairly rendered
summary of the so-called Westminster Assembly's
Catechism, which is the recognized doctrinal founda-
tion of the Presbyterian Church wherever existing.
I present the documents in full, not because I have
occasion to examine their numerous specifications
in detail, many of them being substantially the
same as are to be found in the church standards
already considered, but to present a comparative
view of modern Calvinistic theology and that
which I derive from the Gospel history, and to set
forth in a few expository observations the variance
as well as the accordance between them.

382 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

CREED.

•• I believe that there is one, and but one, living and true
God ; that the word of God, contained in the Scriptures of
"the Old and New Testament, is the only perfect rule of faith
and practice : that, agreeably to those Scripture.*, God is a
Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom,
power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; that in the God-
head are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost ; and that these Three are One God, the same in
substance, equal in power and glory; that God created man
after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holi-
ness ; that the glory of God is man's chief end, and the
enjoyment of God his supreme happiness ; that this enjoy-
ment is derived solely from conformity of heart to the moral
character and will of God; that Adam, the federal head and
representative of the human race, was placed in a state of
probation, and that, in consequence of his disobedience, all
his descendants were constituted sinners ; that, by nature,
every man is personally depraved, destitute of holiness, unlike
and opposed to God; and that, previously to the renewing
agency of the Divine Spirit, all his moral actions are averse
to the character and glory of God: that, being morally inca-
pable of recovering the image of his Creator, which was
lost in Adam, every man is justly exposed to eternal damna-
tion ; so that, except a man be born again he cannot see the
kingdom of God ; that God, of His mere good pleasure, from
all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, and that He
entered into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of this
state of sin and misery by a Redeemer ; that the only
Redeemer of the elect is the eternal Son of God, who, for
this purpose, became man, and continues to be God and
man, in two distinct natures, and one person, forever; that
Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the office of a Prophet,
Priest, and King ; that, agreeably to the covenant of redemp-
tion, the Son of God, and he alone, by his sufferings and
death, has made atonement for the sins of all men; that
repentance, faith, and holiness, are the personal requisites in

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 883

the gospel scheme of salvation : that the righteousness of
Christ is the only ground of a sinner's justification : that
this righteousness is received through faith ; and that this
faith is the gift of God ; so that our salvation is wholly of
grace ; that no means whatever can change the heart of a
sinner, and make it holy; that regeneration and sanctification
are effects of the creating and renewing agency of the Holy
Spirit, and that supreme love to God constitutes the essen-
tial difference between saints and sinners ; that, by convincing
us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds, working
faith in us, and renewing our wills, the Holy Spirit makes
us partakers of the benefits of redemption: and that the
ordinary means by which these benefits are communicated
to us, are the word, sacraments, prayers ; that repentance
unto life, faith to feed upon Christ, love to God, and new
obedience, are the appropriate qualifications for the Lord's
Supper : and that a Christian church ought to admit no per-
son to its holy communion, before he exhibits credible evi-
dence of his godly sincerity ; that perseverance in holiness is
the only method of making our calling and election sure ;
and that the final perseverance of saints, though it is the
effect of the special operation of God on their hearts, neces-
sarily implies their own watchful diligence; that they who
are effectually called, do, in this life, partake of justification,
adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which do
either accompany or flow from them; that the souls of
believers, are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and
do immediately pass into glory ; that their bodies, being still
united to Christ will, at the resurrection, be raised up to
glory, and that the saints will be made perfectly blessed in
the full enjoyment of God, to all eternity; but that the wicked
will awake to shame and everlasting contempt, and, with devils,
be plunged into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone
forever and ever. I moreover believe that God, according to
the counsel of His own will, and for His own glory, hath
foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and that all beings,
actions, and events, both in the natural and moral world, are
under His providential direction; that God's decrees perfectly

384 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

consist with human liberty, God's universal agency with the
agency of man, and man's dependence with his accountability ;
that man has understanding and corporeal strength to do all
that God requires of him ; so that nothing but the sinner's
aversion to holiness prevents his salvation ; that it is the pre-
rogative of God to bring good out of evil, and that He will
cause the wrath and rage of wicked men and devils to praise
Him; and that all the evil which has existed, and will for-
ever exist, in the moral system, will eventually be made to
promote a most important purpose, under the wise and per-
fect administration of that Almighty Being, who will cause
all things to work for His own glory, and thus fulfill all His
pleasure."

DECLARATION.

"And, furthermore, I do most solemnly promise that I will
open and explain the Scriptures to my pupils with integrity
and faithfulness : that I will maintain and inculcate the
Christian faith, as expressed in the creed, by me now repeated,
together with all the other doctrines and duties of our holy
religion, so far as may appertain to my office, according to
the best light God shall give me, and in opposition, not only
to Atheists and Infidels, but to Jews, Papists, Mahometans,
Arians, Pelagians, Antinomians, Arminians, Socinians, Sabel-
lians, Unitarians, and Universalists, and to all heresies and
errors, ancient and modern, which may be opposed to the
gospel of Christ, or hazardous to the souls of men ; that
by my instruction, counsel, and example, I will endeavor to
promote true piety and godliness; that I will consult the
good of this Institution, and the peace of the churches of
our Lord Jesus Christ on all occasions ; and that I will reli-
giously conform to the constitution and laws of this Semi-
nary, and to the statutes of this foundation."

REMARKS.

I. In regard to the distinctive doctrines of the
Trinity and its adjuncts, The Fall of Man, Total

AND ITS CORRUPTEONS. 386

Depravity, Election and Reprobation, Vicarious
Atonement, Miraculous Regeneration, The Resur-
rection of the Body, A Day of Judgment, and End-
less Punishment, this Andover pronunciamento does
not differ essentially from those already considered,
and I will not recapitulate what I have said upon
those points in previous discussions, only affirming
that in my judgment this is as defective in the
particulars specified and as worthy of rejection as
any of the others. None of the doctrines named
have been radically improved or relieved of their
questionable features by exchanging their ancient
or medieval phraseology for that of the Nineteenth
Century. They are the same mystical, irrational,
unscriptural, and, in some respects, immoral dogmas
as when they appeared in old-time garb, at Geneva,
Augsburg, or far away Nicea.

2. The moral character and government of God,
as represented in this Creed, are no better than
they appear in those referred to ; they could not
well be worse. The Divine Being, in this modern
portraiture of Him, is as selfish as before; as self-
ish as He is mighty ; seeking His own sovereign
exaltation and deific glory, though it be in the
reprobation, wrath, rage, torture, and endless exe-
crations of countless devils and incorrigibly unre-
pentant human souls. From all eternity He planned
a universe which should at last become the theater
of a divided and forever irreconcilable empire ; one
small province of which should be loyal to Him
and inconceivably happy in such loyalty ; all the
rest, by far the larger portion, remaining in a state

386 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of rebellion which He could never overcome, and
whose subjects He could never win to His service*
having been doomed to writhe and agonize in sin
and misery world without end. He foreordained
exactly what should come to pass ; created Adam
and put him on probation for his entire posterity,
knowing it would issue in the total depravity of
all of them and in the never-ending hostility of the
greater part of them to Him and their utter ruin;
He elected the few that would be saved to immortal
honor and blessedness, and foreordained the remain-
der to "shame and everlasting contempt." He
could have secured the salvation and happiness of
the whole race of mankind had He impartially done
for all through the agency of Christ and the Holy
Spirit that which He did for the few, but, strange
as it may seem, it was not His pleasure and not
to His glory. And to crown the climax of His
adorable (?) justice He regards the non-elect as guilty
and deserving of interminable torments in " the lake
that burneth with fire and brimstone forever and
ever," as if by Adam's sin they had not been ren-
dered *' morally incapable of recovering the image
of their Creator" without "the renewing agency
of the Holy Spirit " which He, of His good
pleasure, does not see fit to grant them. By
divine decree they were left "with corporeal
strength to do all that God requires," but shorn
of all moral strength, and so were utterly help-
less and incapacitated for any such service. For
not repenting when they had no power to repent,
for not having faith in Christ's righteousness, which

AND ITS CORUUPTIONS. 387

alone could justify them, when that faith, which is
the gift of God, was not granted them, they must
writhe in hopeless agony

" While life and thought and being last,
Or immortality endures.'"

Such is the conception of God and of His deal-
ings with men as represented in the Andover
Creed, to be faithfully maintained and inculcated
by the professors of the Andover Theological Semi-
nary against Atheists, Jews, Papists, Arminians,
Unitarians, Universalists, and other sceptics and
heretics. Does it not seem incredible that myriads
of intelligent, educated, high-minded people could
be so deluded as to believe that our universe is
under the direction of such a Being, and above all
that He is the God whom Christ revealed as the
Father of all mankind ?

3. Under this conception of the divine govern-
ment of the universe it follows, as a matter of
course, that the great ideas of the divine Father-
hood and of human Brotherhood, which are funda-
mental to my system of faith and which must be
made of indispensable importance as working forces
in the church that is to lead the world's civiliza-
tion progressively onward and upward to universal
holiness, peace, and blessedness, could have no
basis in the realities of. things, and all reference
to them, sublime and ennobling as they are, is
therefore in logical and moral consistency passed
by. To have recognized them and given them
prominence in this Andover platform would have

388 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

introduced elements irreconcilably antagonistic to
its predominating spirit and purpose.

4. What then must be the legitimate and inevi-
table moral and social fruits of such a system ?
Taken as a whole and considered in its practical
tendency and effect they must in the nature of
things be (i) Contempt of reason, and the blind
acceptance of doctrines opposed to the unperverted
judgment and common sense of mankind as truth,
which is virtual self-stultification. (2) Bigotry and
religious exclusiveness towards all unbelievers and
dissenters, however worthy, conscientious, Christ-
like they may be. (3) Denunciation, threats of
damnation in the future world, and penal persecu-
tion in this world (where there is temporal power),
towards alleged heretics and opponents. (4) Com-
pulsory recognition of the adopted standard of faith,
enforced taxation for the support of religious insti-
tutions based upon that standard wherever civil
government can be controlled by its adherents.
(5) The sanction of so-called righteous war, capital
punishment, legalized oath-taking, and other prac-
tices, more or less cruel and vindictive, and so
opposed to the principles and spirit of the Gospel.
To the clear-seeing, high-minded Christian these
things are an offence and an abomination, without
warrant or excuse.

5. But in thus declaring what I conceive to be
the legitimate results of belief in such a Creed as
that under notice, I would freely and gladly admit
the fact that they do not always or in these later
times frequently follow the profession or acceptance

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 389

of such a Creed. In considering the subject in all
its bearings it becomes us to distinguish between
the necessary fruits of a man's professed belief
and the fruits of his own innate religious instincts
and moral consciousness ; also between the fruits
of his professed belief and the results of his
environment, the age he lives in, etc. The truth
in this matter is, that there are manifold forces or
agencies that go to the making of character, or the
shaping of one's life and conduct, of which his
speculative opinions upon theological subjects con-
stitute but a part, and oftentimes a very sub-
ordinate part, or possibly no appreciable part at
all. In many cases theological opinions are purely
intellectual ' concepts or abstractions, having no
place in the heart, out of which are the issues of
life Hence we oftentimes see men unspeakably
better than their creed, and other men worse than
their creeds. And it would be a most unwarranta-
ble and false conclusion, as a rule, to infer that
because a man has a bad creed — an unreasonable
creed — an immoral creed, he is therefore a bad or
immoral man ; as it would to infer that because a
man has a good creed he must needs be a good man.
Men are to be judged in other ways. "By their
fruits ye shall know them," was the Master's rule,
and a very safe rule it is. And judging by this
rule I know and am happy to confess that multi-
tudes of people who have made avowal of faith in
the Andover Creed or similar ones have been
among the excellent of the earth — most Christ-
like— not because, but in spite of their creeds.

390 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

And so one may say, Judge not a person, a party,
a denomination, so far a character is concerned, by
the belief or theory professed, but "judge righteous
iudsfment."

II. The Calvinistic Baptists.

The distinguishing feature of those Protestant
bodies that bear the name of Baptists is their
inflexible adhesion to the theory and practice of
immersion as the only Scriptural mode of Christian
baptism, in contradistinction from that of sprinkling
so generally employed as a rite by which members
are admitted into the church. They are divided
into two classes, those holding to the Arminian
doctrine of the freedom of the will, of whom I
shall speak in a later Discourse, and the so-called
Regular or Associate Baptists, the subjects of
present remark. Theologically, these are Moderate
Calvinists, as they are Congregationalists in respect
to church government. It is greatly to the credit
of this Denomination in its every department that
it has stood bravely for. civil and religious liberty
throughout its entire history, and has never been
guilty of openly persecuting dissentients or those
deemed heretics for opinion's sake. This may be
owing in part to the fact that until a recent date
its confessors have been in the minority, both in
this and the mother country — have been regarded
as heretics themselves and suffered much obloquy
and disrepute if not outrage and violence by their
assumed-to-be superiors in church and state.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 391

The doctrinal views of the Regular Baptists are
stated in full in a Declaration of Faith put forth
some years ago by the Baptist Convention in New
Hampshire, which Declaration has not to my knowl-
edge been essentially modified since, either as a
result of the higher criticism or of growth of
thought, and which is believed to express with
little variation the prevailing sentiments of the
great majority of those entitled to the Baptist
name. That Declaration is a lengthy document,
drawn up in logical form and expressed in ingenious
rhetoric. It arrays what is properly known as
•* Orthodoxy " in fine velvet and satin, with ornate
head-dress and silver slippers. It is not needful
that I reproduce it in these pages, being in sub-
stance so much like what has appeared more than
once before. It embodies the theology of the post-
Apostolic and medieval ages, though wearing the
robes of modern speech and scholarship. But it is
the same essential theory of the universe — the
same objectionable conception of God, Man, Christ,
Salvation, Destiny. It gives us a Triune God, a
fallen race, a scheme of redemption involving vica-
rious atonement and imputed righteousness, and a
final issue of holiness and happiness for a few but
of sin and anguish for the many of the children of
men, — a condition fixed at the day of judgment
and impossible of subsequent modification or rever-
sal. For, judged by any standard of measurement
recognized by this or any other professedly orthodox
authority, the proportion of the saved to the lost
must be exceedingly fractional. So much for a

392 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

God said to be ''worthy of all possible honor, con-
fidence, and love." So much for a Christ, every
way qualified to be *'a suitable, a compassionate,
and an all-suf^cient Savior." And so much, I
would add, for an arch deceiver — a Satan, who
gets the better of the Almighty at the beginning
of human existence on the earth, luring all mankind
from their proper allegiance to their rightful sover-
eign, and holding the vast majority, despite all
that God can do to recover His rebellious creatures,
subject to his own unhallowed sway forever and
ever! !

The emphasis which these Baptist brethren lay
upon water baptism by immersion is so great and
so different from that of other professed Christians
that I may as well quote the article of their creed
relating to it entire, thereby rendering my comments
upon it more intelligible. It reads as follows: —

" 12. That Christian baptism is the immersion of the
believer in water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit ;
to shew forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in
a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its purifying power ;
that it is pre-requisite to the privileges of a church relation
and to the Lord's Supper, in which the members of the
church, by the use of bread and wine, are to commemorate
together the dying love of Christ — preceded always by
solemn self-examination."

And this they profess and avow in the face of
John the Baptist's declaration, *' I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance ; but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes
I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 393

with the Holy Ghost and with fire." {Matt. iii. ii.)
Also of another passage ; " For John truly baptized
with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy
Ghost not many days hence." {Acts i. 5.) These
and kindred testimonies teach me conclusively that
water baptism by immersion or otherwise, is not
Christian baptism but Johns baptism, and that
distinctive Christian baptism is a cleansing of the
soul from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Water baptism, in whatever form administered, may
have its uses, as a symbol or emblem of inward
regeneration or as a mode of initiation into the
church, but in itself it can have no soul-purifying
or renewing power whatever. Nor is it ever said
in the Scriptures that it is designed to show forth
"our faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour,"
but to be observed as a sign of our death to sin
and resurrection to newness of life by a spiritual
baptism. Moreover the assumption that water
baptism is "a pre-requisite to the privileges of a
church relation and to the Lord's Supper," is a
gratuitous inference, indefensible from the New
Testament, contrary to reason, and unchristian in
spirit. It is only calculated to promote bigotry
and build up a sect, not to improve Christian char-
acter and life.

The Baptists have a most excellent supplement
to their Creed, denominated a "Church Covenant,"
to be entered into by all who formally unite in
fellowship with them. It is a mutual agreement
and pledge "solemnly and joyfully" made "to
walk together in him (Christ) with brotherly love,"

394 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

" to exercise a mutual care, as members one
of another, to promote the growth of the whole
body in Christian knowledge, holiness, and com-
fort ; to the end that we may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God." They further-
more engage that " we will uphold the public wor-
ship of God," "cheerfully contribute of our property
for the support of the poor," etc. ; that " we will
not omit closet and family religion at home," nor
neglect " the great duty of religiously training up
our children and those under our care"; "that we
will walk circumspectly with the world," in order to
win souls ; " that we will frequently exhort, and,
if occasion require, admonish one another in the
spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we be
tempted"; and that "there is on us a special
obligation henceforth to walk in newness of life."
This Covenant is certainly admirable on account
of the high and holy life therein pledged, If the
pledges and promises and the various Christian
duties acknowledged and agreed to be performed,
be kept in any good degree, then will those making
them prove that they have been born again, not
after the flesh but after the spirit. Under such a
moral regimen and administration none could be
masters while others were slaves in the same church,
as was formerly the case in the Southern states ; nor
would one live luxuriously in a palace while another
pined for the necessaries of life in a hovel or was
sent off to the world's almshouse for support. One
would not be driving sharp bargains with another,
growing rich by his impoverishment, as is done by

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 395-

the unregenerate, unbaptized commonalty of man-
kind. The spirit of true brotherhood in the church
would prevail and the kingdom of God would in a
large degree have come to it. As it is, however,
the Baptists stand about on a level with other
sects in these respects, and in respect to Christian
piety and morality generally, as they do with many
people outside of all church relations. They main-
tain the respectabilities of current civilization, exem-
plify many personal and social virtues, but show
little disposition or ability to rebuild even their
own church on the primitive foundations ; much
less to take up the work of re-organizing human
society and of inaugurating the kingdom of God
on the earth.

DISCOURSE XXIV.

THE SEVEBAL ARMINIAN DENOMINATIONS-
METHODISTS, ETC.

" Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit,
but to the subverting of hearers." — 2 Tim. ii. 14.

The religious bodies which are to be examined
and criticized in this Discourse derive their distinct-
ive theological doctrines, as well as the general
name I apply to them, from James Arminius, a
native of Holland, born in 1560. He was distin-
guished even in youth for his learning and
high character, being offered the degree of D. D.
by the University of Basel when but 23 years of
age ; which honor he, however, declined, saying
that ''for so young a face to bear that title would
diminish its dignity." He was elected to the office
of minister of the church in Amsterdam, where he
attained such distinction for his ability that he was
urged to undertake the defence of the Calvinistic
tenet of predestination, which had been violently
attacked by some of the more radical polemic con-
troversialists of that day. He undertook the task,
but, in preparing for it, was persuaded that the position
he was to maintain, though accordant with his own

PRIMITIVE- CHRISTIANITY. 39T

previously entertained ideas, was indefensible, either
by reason or from the Scriptures. He therefore
abandoned it and began the advocacy of opinions
adverse thereto, rising in due time to the leader-
ship of the opposition, and, as it proved, becoming
the founder of a new school in theology among
the reformers of his time. This created a great
agitation in ecclesiastical circles and drew down
upon himself and his devotees the anathemas of
all the Calvinistic Protestants of Europe, who then
seemed to be largely in the majority, especially in
the Netherlands and France.

It would be amusing if it were not so sadly
pitiful and deplorable to review the bitter contro-
versies, not infrequently characterized by gross
injustice and cruelty, which sprang up between
the Calvinists and Arminians, and were continued
with more or less virulence for several generations.
These two parties were in singular agreement upon
most points of theological speculation ; upon the
Divine Nature, the Fall of Man, the office of Christ,
and the endless sin and misery of the great mass
of mankind who die impenitent. But exactly how
and why God was to save the few and damn the
many was the great question at issue between
them. •* Predestination " and "Free Grace" were
the respective battle-cries of the belligerant forces.
Starting from premises mainly common to both,
the Calvinists seemed to have the more logic on
their side and came more directly to an inevitable
conclusion. But their conclusion was "a monster
of SHch frightful mein, that to be hated need but

^98 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

be seen." So the Arminians, governed by their
human instincts, maintained, and so the common
sense of the more thoughtful multitude af^rmed ;
and even the victorious logicians themselves were
sometimes so horrified at the goblin that their own
speculations had created as to shrink back from it
or to try and soften its hideous features into toler-
able comeliness. Hence the Moderate Calvinists,
of which I spoke before, constituting about the
only kind of Calvinists to be found in our day.
Hence also the revolt of Arminius, who, of a less
arrogant and determined nature than Calvin, was
constitutionally disposed to a tolerant theology ;
but who, like Melancthon and other complaisant
spirits, tried to be liberal and yet differ as little
as possible from the sterner, more resolute dogma-
tists enthroned in popular favor. This will be seen
in the formulated statement of his Five Points of
Arminianism, which he put in contrast with the
famous Five Points of Calvinism, and which may
be understood as embodying not only his views,
but the views of his proper followers — Methodists,
Free Will Baptists, Disciples, Friends or Quakers,
many Episcopalians, etc., to the present time.
That statement I transcribe verbatim from McClin-
tock's and Strong's Cyclopaedia, to which reference
has already been made, presuming it is authentic
and reliable.

I. "God, by an eternal and inscrutable decree, ordained
in Jesus Christ, His Son, before the foundation of the world,
to save in Christ, because of Christ, and through Christ,
from out of the human race, which is fallen and subject to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 399

sin, those who, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, believe in
the name of His Son, and who, by the same grace, persevere
unto the end in that faith and the obedience of faith ; but
on the contrary to leave in sin and subject to wrath those
who are not converted, and are unbelieving, and to con-
demn them as aliens from Christ according to the Gospel.
John iii. 36.

2. ''To which end Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world,
died for all and each one, so that he has gained for all,
through the death of Christ, reconciliation and remission of
sins: on this condition, however, that no one in reality
enjoys that remission of sins except the faithful man, and
this, too, according to the Gospel. JoJui iii. 16, and i Jolui
ii. 2.

3. " But man has not from himself, or by the power of
his free will saving faith, inasmuch as in the state of defec-
tion and sin he cannot think or do for himself anything good,
which is indeed, really good, such as saving faith is ; but it
is necessary for him to be born again and renewed by God,
in Christ, through His Holy Spirit, in his mind, affections,
or will, and all his faculities ; so that he may be able to
understand, think, wish, and perform something good, accord-
ing to that saying of Christ in John xv. 5.

4. '• It is this grace of God which begins, promotes, and
perfects everything good, and this to such a degree that even
the regenerate man, without this preceding or adventitious
grace, exciting, consequent, and co-operating, can neither
think, wish, or do anything good, nor even resist an evil
temptation ; so that all the good works which we can think
of are to be attributed to the grace of God in Christ. But
as to the manner of the operation of that grace, it is not
irresistible ; for it is said of many that they resisted the
Holy Spirit in Acts vii. 51 and many other places.

5. ''Those who are grafted into Christ by a true faith,
and therefore partake of his vivifying Spirit, have abundance
of means whereby they may fight against Satan in the world
and their own fiesh, and obtain the victory ; always, however, by
the aid of the grace of the Holy Spirit ; Jesus Christ assists them

400 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

by liis Spirit in all temptations, and stretches out his hand ;
and provided they are ready for the contest, and seek his
aid and are not wanting to their duty, he strengthens them
to such a degree that they cannot be seduced or snatched
from the hands of Christ by any power of Satan or violence,
according to that saying, John x. 28, ' No one shall pluck
them out of my hand.' But whether these very persons
cannot, by their own negligence, desert the commencement
of their being in Christ, and embrace again the present
world, fall back from the holy doctrine once committed to
them, make shipwreck of their conscience, and fall from
grace; this must be more fully examined and weighed by
the Holy Scriptures, before men can teach it with full tran-
quility of mind and confidence. The last proposition was
modified by the followers of Arminius so as to assert the
possibility of falling from grace." — McClintock and Strong.

The same authority says, "The Arminian doc-
trine on predestination is now widely diffused in
the Protestant world. It is, in the main, coincident
with that of the Lutherans in Germany; is held by
the Wesleyan Methodist Churches throughout the
world ; by a large part of the Church of England
and by many of the clergy of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church in the United States. It is substan-
tially the doctrine (on the question of predestination)
of the Greek and Roman Churches and is also held
by several of the minor sects." The same is proba-
bly true of the more liberal of the Trinitarian
Congregationalists, whose general views are known
by the name of " The New Orthodoxy," although
they would doubtless prefer to state their belief
in their own language rather than in that of
Arminius.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 401

The largest organized Protestant body represent-
ing Arminianism in the world today, so far as it
was a protest against the earlier and more rigid
Calvinism, is, as I have intimated, undoubtedly the
Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in England
about the year 1740 by the brothers, John and
Charles Wesley ; the growth of which church in
numbers, in extent of territory covered, and in
influence, is one of the most striking phenomena
of modern times. I shall do no injustice to other
less notable Methodist sects, or to sects bearing
other names holding essentially Arminian views, if
I make the Episcopal Methodists my special sub-
ject of remark at this time ; what I have to say
being generally applicable to all in agreement with
them upon points of doctrine now under considera-
tion. The Methodist Standard of Faith, with the
omission of fourteen articles is like that of the
Church of England in substance, though there are
slight variations of phraseology adapting it to the
changed circumstances under which the two denomi-
nations exist. The omitted articles and their subjects
are; (3) On Christ's Descent into Hell; (8) The
Ancient Creeds ; (13) Good Works before Justifica-
tion ; (15) Sinlessness of Christ ; (17) Predestination
and Election; (18) Salvation only in Christ's name;
(20) Authority of the Church; (21) Authority of
the General Councils ; (23) Calling to the Ministry ;
(26) Unworthy Ministers do not make the Sacra-
ments void ; (28) Wicked Communicants at the
Lord's Table ; (33) Avoiding Excommunicated Per-
sons ; (35) Homilies ; (36) Consecration of Bishops

402 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and Ministers. There is no necessity of quoting
the accepted articles since it is easy to refer to
them in Discourses XX, XXI, if the reader desires.
I continue my examination of the Arminian Theol-
ogy which underlies Methodism and kindred forms
of belief by a few

COMMENTS.

I. No doubt the Statement of Arminianism as
quoted must be tiresome if not vexatious to clear-
headed Calvinists, as indeed it is to other intelligent
people of whatever creed they may be. It is much
convolved, blindly expressed, to some extent con-
tradictory. Let us, at the risk of repetition, look
at some of its asseverations with a discerning,
impartial eye, and see how hazy, bewildering, and
indefensible they are. It asserts that man cannot
of himself think or do any good thing; anything
to gain or promote his salvation except by the aid
of the Holy Spirit ; he cannot believe in the
name of Christ, which is the essential condition of
salvation, but by the same divine help. It also
asserts that God ordained before the foundations
of the world were laid to save such and only such
as should believe in Christ and persevere in that
belief. Left to itself, therefore, no soul would or
could be saved ; and only such would or could be
saved as the Holy Spirit might induce to seek
salvation by faith in Christ. But every soul is
salvable. Christ died for all and each, and gained
for all reconciliation and remission of sins. Then
why will not all be saved ? They would if God by

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 403

the Holy Spirit should do for all what He does for
those whom He has ordained to save. But why
does He not thus befriend the entire human race
and so bring all mankind to holiness and happiness
at last ? The only answer the Arminian can give
to this question is that He did not choose such a
course as wisest and best. That is, He chose to
do for some totally depraved sinners what was
indispensable to their eternal welfare, and to with-
hold the same gracious aid from the rest because
such seemingly partial and inconsistent course was
wisest and best. But is not this virtually what
Calvinism affirms, only that it makes the final
result to depend upon an original divine decree,
and Arminianism makes the same final result depend
upon the divine action or non-action at a later point
of time.'* And does this relieve God from the charge
of cruel and indefensible severity which the Armi-
nians claimed was the horrible feature of the Calvin-
istic system 1 Not at all, so far as I can see. Indeed,
the Calvinistic system seems to me the most logi-
cally consistent and the no less moral system of
the two. Yet it shocks the ordinary Arminian,
who, in his attempted self-justification, muddles
both logic and Scripture alike, without exculpating
the Divine Being, even by his own sophisms. He
pleads that God is horribly partial and unjust in
electing some to salvation and reprobating others
to damnation. Yet his own system makes God
sentence all the posterity of Adam to a state of
total depravity and endless woe for their ancestor's
sin — a state from which it is absolutely impossi-

404 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ble for any to obtain deliverance save as God inter-
venes, and, by the power of His grace, brings them
to a savino^ faith in Christ as the condition of such
deliverance. But as God does not intervene of His
own free will in the case of the finally lost, does
He not virtually choose that they shall be so^lost?
And is that any better, morally considered, than
to predestinate them at the beginning to such a
fate ? Not one whit. In this respect there is little
to choose between the systems in comparison^
Both virtually ascribe the same derogatory and
abominable character to God, and proclaim the same
appalling destiny to incalculable myriads of man-
kind.

2. It is quite worth while to look a little farther
into the argument by which Arminianism seeks to
justify itself in its own estimation and before the
world. Its arraignment of Calvinism was on the
ground that it made God arbitrary, partial, and to
the non-elect intolerably merciless. The argumenta-
tion ran thus; *' God is a Being, perfectly holy, just,
good to all mankind. He is unwilling that any
should perish ; He would have all men to be saved
and come to a knowledge of the truth ; He sent His
Son to make an atonement for the entire human
race ; He offers redemption to every one on con-
dition of faith and repentance; all may share the
divine favor and gain heaven, if they will ; and if
any are finally lost and go to hell it will be their
own fault — the righteous result of their own choice
in rejecting the offers of divine mercy and treating
despitefully the pleadings of divine grace." These

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 405

and many similar declarations fortified and made
more impressive by numerous apt quotations from
Scripture — both Old Testament and New — were
employed in setting forth the love and tender com-
passion of God, His mercy that endureth forever,
His forgiving grace, the all sufficiency of Christ's
atoning sacrifice, the brooding concern of the Holy
Spirit seeking to win the sinner from the error of
his ways and waiting to hear his acceptance of the
proffers of pardon, accompanied by earnest exhorta-
tions and entreaties to impenitent hearers to make
their peace with God, to give their hearts to Christ,
to yield to the persuasions of the divine Spirit while
there is yet time, and all the impassioned, fervid,
sometimes lurid and ghastly implorations of reviv-
alistic sensationalism and religious frenzy. Through-
out all this rapidly-flowing and oftentimes long-
drawn-out flood of declamatory rhetoric, the ordinary
listener obtained not the least hint that, according
to the theological system which the effusive oratory
represented and was designed to promote, he, as
an unconverted sinner, was utterly powerless to
think or do anything good or acceptable to God —
had no more ability to comply with the overtures
ostensibly made to him than he had to fly to Para-
dise or create a world. These features of the creed
under whose auspices the Gospel message came
to him were kept wholly out of sight, and he
was deluded concerning them — fearfully deluded,
if the creed were true. And this is the fatally weak
point of the Arminian theory of the divine govern-
ment and of human salvation, — both logically and

406 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

practically its weak point. The utter moral inabil-
ity of the sinner to comply with the divine require-
ments, to work out his own salvation is one of its
fundamental postulates; and yet every duty enjoined
upon men, every divine command or Gospel pre-
cept repeated, every appeal made, implies that those
designed to be affected and benefited thereby, are
as free and as able to act responsibly and favorably
in reference to them as he is to rise from his bed
in the morning or to attend to the ordinary labors
of his daily life. This is an inconsistency, a con-
tradiction that no plausibility or sophistry can hide
from the thoughtful mind, and that no legerde-
main can convert into Gospel truth. It is a defect
that vitiates the whole system of which it forms a
part, and renders it worthy only of disavowal and
complete renunciation.

3. Another question of no trifling importance
sprang up in connection with the Calvinistic-
Arminian controversy, to wit: What is the final
destiny of infants, and of virtuous heathen who
never heard of Christ and of the way of salvation
by a crucified Redeemer.^ The primitive Christians
seemed to have no trouble or anxiety about the
future well-being of these classes, but after Chris-
tianity had been metamorphosed by partially con-
verted Greek and Roman philosophers, who became
its doctrinaires, the prospect for all such was at once
cloudy and uncertain, and the deepening apostasy of
the dark ages left no ray of hope for the unbaptized
and unchurched of any class, in any portion of the
great round world. But within the last century

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 407

opinions have been very much modified upon this
matter, and few can now be found, whether Cal-
vinists or Arminians, who like to be charged with
holding to infant damnation or to the endless misery
of honest, upright, humane Jews, Mahometans,
pagans, etc. But this only proves that the old
creeds are being outgrown, or at least distrusted.
For if they be true in their main features, if all
men are born totally depraved and subjects of
God's wrath, if there be no salvation except through
faith in Christ and the regenerative agency of the
Holy Spirit, if there be no place for repentance and
return to God after death, what hope is there, what
hope can there be for any souls of any age or
class, who pass from this earth-life outside the
Christian church, having no consciousness or experi-
ence of regenerating faith ? None whatever. And
yet multitudes professing the Calvinistic or Armi-
nian formularies declare that it is unjust to repre-
sent them as believing that there are few who will
be finally saved and many hopelessly lost, inasmuch
as they hold that all infants will somehow or other
obtain the benefits of the atonement, and with
them no one knows how many pious pagans and
unchurched dwellers in Christian lands. Very welh
the more the better. But if this be so, we may
justly demand that those so declaring shall amend
their public Confessions of Faith, so as to have
them agree with their private beliefs. And we
may ask them at the same time to tell us why
God treats the infant children of common sinners
so much better than He does their parents, brothers

408 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and sisters, who are so unfortunate as to grow to
maturer years only that they may continue in sin
and be forever damned ; and also how it is that
virtuous people outside of Christendom should have
a better chance of receiving divine favor at the
judgment seat than correspondingly virtuous people,
though unchurched, within its pale. But what is
the testimony of Scripture upon this much debated
subject? Concerning the little ones brought to him
that he might bless them, Jesus said, *' Of such is
the kingdom of heaven." And concerning the
Gentiles, Paul declared that when they, "not hav-
ing the law do by nature the things contained in
the law " ** they are a law unto themselves " and
are to be judged accordingly. And Peter affirmed
that "God is no respecter of persons, but in
every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is accepted with him." And further-
more, he stated that the Gospel "was preached
to them that are dead, that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh, but live according
to God in the Spirit." These representations are
agreeable to common sense, justice, and benevolence,
and ought to satisfy all who seek to conform their
faith with New Testament teachings, though they
furnish no support for the theology of Calvinists
or Arminians, as found in their books.

4. The question now seems to suggest itself.
What are the comparative merits of Calvinism and
Arminianism as agencies for bringing sinners to
repentance and awakening the better life in human
souls, or as working forces to improve the existing

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 409

moral and social conditions of mankind and build
up the divine kingdom in the world ? This is a
difficult question to answer categorically and to
general satisfaction. Arminianism appears to have
been the more successful of the two in making-
nominal converts to Christ, in multiplying church
members, and in agitating religiously the public
mind and heart. Were the quality of its converts
and increased members as much better as the
number of them is greater than those affected by
Calvinism, it would have the advantage. But that
is doubtful. Granting, however, its pre-eminence
in the respect named, we might still ask if it is
doing more for mankind here upon earth — more
to promote the real progress of civilization and to
bring in the reign of righteousness, justice, brother-
hood, and peace. The Calvinists can rightfully
claim that, as a general thing, they wherever exist-
ing have maintained the principles of civil and
religious freedom and stood for improved and improv-
ing political ideas and institutions. The Arminians
can also show a good record in this particular, with
a stronger tendency to toleration and liberality
when in the exercise of temporal power, the genius
of their is7n being, it must be confessed, more
benignant, meliorating, and progressive than that
of their senior and competitor. It has done much for
this reason to tone down and soften the more rigid
and severe features of its long-time antagonistic
faith. And by its unfaltering insistence upon its
favorite doctrine of free will, it has done much to
quicken the sense of moral responsibility in the

410 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

minds of the masses, to increase the consciousness
of abiUty to do right, and to raise the popular reli-
gious estimate of the value of right doing as com-
pared with right believing. And the emphasis its
prophets have laid upon the love of God, as opposed
to the mere sovereignty of God, has done much to
rouse to. active life the more tender and beneficent
sentiments of those over whom it has had influence.
But we must remember that these commendable
results have been realized almost exactly to the
extent that some of the most pronounced theories
of Arminius himself touching human depravity and
moral inability have been ignored, and the method of
Jesus and the early Evangelists employed, by appeal-
ing to the better instincts and impulses of the
unperverted human heart in the spirit of love to
God and man.

What then is the relative standing of these two
forms of faith and of their respective adherents to
the practical righteousness, personal and social, of
mankind in the present world ? Leaving out of
mind what may be termed strict pietism, the soul's
attitude towards God, and all considerations drawn
from a destiny of happiness or misery in a future
state of being, what bearing have they upon the
great evils that afflict humanity, and what are they
accomplishing in the way of lifting human society
to higher levels and bringing in the kingdom of
God .'' Aside from that general, indirect influence
which all sincere, honest, upright, devout men and
women have upon the moral condition of the world
to purify and improve it, what special, immediate

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 411

activities have they put in motion or what particu-
lar ends proposed for establishing that divine order
of human life which Christianity in its larger mean-
ing and broader application implies and involves ?
Do they either of them distinctly and emphatically
aim at the abolition of injustice, violence, capital
punishment, war, and all forms of man's inhumanity
to man ? Have they any scruples against oath-
taking, political chicanery and trickery, or partici-
pation in sword-sustained governments ? Do they
see anything unchristian in the ordinary methods
of money-making, money-spending, or of exercis-
ing money-acquired power ? Do they feel that
anything should be done to establish more just
and fraternal relations between the rich and the
poor, the fortunate and the unfortunate, the
employer and the employed, and to bring all
classes and conditions of men to act in all things
according to the principles and in the spirit of
true brotherhood ? Do they realize that there is
great need in the world of a regenerated order of
social life, or that the Christian church is under
any obligation to exemplify any higher type of
civilization than that which prevails in the world
at large ? Undoubtedly there are individual men
and women in both those great divisions of the
nominal Christian church who see the need and
feel something of the responsibility which these
several inquiries suggest. But nothing in regard
to the great practical matters alluded to is to be
found in the organic, constitutional provisions of
either of them, in the declared objects for which.

412 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

they exist, or in the ecclesiastical manifestos which
they have at any time sent forth into the world.
Their systems contemplate nothing like a radical
transformation of human society ; nothing like a
comprehensive co-ordination and union of all human
interests and relations in one grand scheme of right-
eousness, fraternity, co-operation, harmony, which
would fulfill the Christian promise and be the con-
summation of the divine plan concerning mankind
upon the earth. The most and the highest they
aim at in the direction indicated is to attain and
maintain a reputable standing in both their per-
sonal and ecclesiastical character and relations on
the common existing plane of the world's so called
civilization. This is of course vastly better than
to rest content with a reign of disorder, profligacy,
vice, barbarism, savagery, but it is not all that
Christianity contemplates, that Christianity is capa-
ble of, that Christianity requires and demands of
its true disciples and representatives. Far from
it. What the world needs is a regenerate church
which shall transcend all the shortcomings of those
under examination, rise to the realization of the
primitive ideal, and be satisfied with nothing short
of Christlikeness in personal character and brother-
liness in the social and civil relations of man to
man. When such a church shall be established
and become dominant in human life, then shall the
voice out of heaven, heard by the seer of Patmos,
be fulfilled, " The tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people ; and God himself shall be with them
and be their God."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 413-

I will bring the present Discourse to a close by
noticing briefly a few objections which my Armin-
ian brethren in common with Calvinists and all
so-called Evangelicals will naturally urge against
the ecclesiastical platform or basis of church organi-
zation that I offer as a substitute for theirs.

I. They will say that my scheme in ignoring
the Fall of Man, Total Depravity, etc., makes
neither sin nor salvation of any great account —
certainly not of most momentous concern. My
platform certainly ignores the theological fictions
referred to, but it by no means ignores or questions
the great fact of human sinfulness and guilt, not
only as set forth in the Scriptures but as illustrated
in the life of individual men and women, of com-
munities, states, and nations, under all skies since
time began. Nor does it underestimate in the least
the importance — the supreme importance of salva-
tion, truly considered ; not salvation from God's
wrath, nor from an endless hell, but salvation from
sin and its consequences, deliverance from the power
of evil in the heart, the dominance of the higher
faculties of human nature — reason, conscience, the
spiritual sense, over the lower — the animal propen-
sities and passions, with all those lusts that war
against the soul. Man's natural endowments are
all good in their place, but greatly liable to per-
version and abuse through selfish and sensual
indulgence. Thereby have all men "sinned and
come short of the glory of God." They must
therefore be regenerated, born anew into a higher
life ; a life of purity, holiness, love ; a life in which

414 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the moral and spiritual forces hold sway, akin to
the life of Gcd. This is the indescribably important
desideratum, " the chief concern of mortals here
below." This is the view of sin and salvation
embodied in my system. Is it not also the view
plainly revealed in the Old and New Testaments ?
2. It may be said that my system holds up no
doctrine of retribution impressive enough to rouse
the hopes and fears of the wayward and wicked
and move them to repentance and a new life in
righteousness. . It certainly holds up no notion of
infinite rewards and punishments for finite deserts;
no heaven of self-exultant joy, no hell of sulphur-
ous fire burning forevermore. Its heaven is heav-
enly-mindedness, blessedness, and peace. Its hell
is hellish-mindedness, unrest, and misery. Its
rewards are not payments of debts for benefits
rendered to God but the beneficent and soul-
satisfying fruits of well-doing — the inevitable accom-
paniments of holiness, trust, and love — an abiding
sense of God's presence and divine approval. Its
punishments are not retaliatory returns for injuries
received, nor penal equivalents for offences against
the divine law, nor inflictions of pain and torment
which have no reformatory purpose or power but
only confirm the sufferer in his sin to all eternity.
But they are the natural results of wrong-doing,
divinely-ordered chastisements for violations of the
law of righteousness, proportioned always to the
guilt of the offender and designed to correct his
faults and turn him from the error of his ways into
paths of obedience, of holiness, and of peace. They

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 415

are unescapable and must continue until the sin
be put away and a new life of love to God and
man begun. God in the administration of His
moral government with reference to his wayward
children chastises them *' not after His own pleasure,
but for their profit, that they may be made par-
takers of His holiness." (See Heb. xii. 5-11.)

3. Again, it may be objected that my platform
makes little or nothing of Christ and his atoning
sacrifice for the sins of mankind. It certainly
makes nothing of the claims put forth by theologues
for his deity, or for any atonement he ever made
in the way of placating the divine anger, or of
suffering in his own person the punishment due to
guilty men, that they may go free. It makes him
a strictly human being in his distinctive personality,
but one superior to all others in his moral and
spiritual constitution and attainment, raised up and
ordained of God, in the divine order of the world,
to be the Christ — the Teacher, Guide, Inspirer,
Saviour of mankind. It maintains that he was quali-
fied and empowered for the discharge of the duties
of the office assigned him by being infilled with
the Divine Logos or Holy Spirit, which made him
pre-eminently the Son of God as well as Son of
man ; that he was a manifestation of the will, the
character, the love of God ; that he lived, taught,
suffered, died, and rose again according to the
Scriptures; and that he was glorified in the heav-
enly world and will continue his work as mediator
between God and men, begun here on the earth
and continued in the immortal state, till he shall

416 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

have subdued all things unto himself, when he will
himself become subject to the Father, "that He
may be all in all." It maintains that he carried
forward his mission upon the earth by his life of
self-sacrificing love, by his holy instructions, by his
perfect example, by his sublime death and glorious
resurrection, and that through these agencies, oper-
ating now as aforetime, will the grand consumma-
tion be reached, and the kingdoms of this world be
his in righteousness and peace.

4. Once more, it may be urged that my plan
does not sufficiently magnify the operations of the
Holy Spirit, the necessity of regeneration, the work-
ings of divine ofrace, etc. The answer to this
objection may be sufficiently learned from what I
have said in previous Discourses, either under the
specific heads named or in a more general way
while discoursing upon the Divine Being and His
relations to and dealings with mankind, and I will
not repeat.

5. Finally, men may say that I have no well-
grounded assurance or reason for believing that a
sufficient number of persons of the right kind —
conscientious, high-minded, self-denying. Christlike
enough — can be found who will unite in the forma-
tion and administration on a broad, comprehensive,
world-embracing scale of such a church as I con-
template. Not very soon, probably. But sometime
in the great future this shall be, it must be accom-
plished. Otherwise all progress is a deceit and a
snare ; all prophecy an illusion ; Christianity a fail-
ure ; and God himself is defeated in His infinite

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 417

purpose of good concerning the children of men.
This I will not believe. The regenerate church will
some day be built ; and, be it soon or late, my
duty to do what I can for it is plain, unmistakable,
and imperative. God help me to be faithful.

DISCOURSE XXV.

THE MOB AVIANS AND FRIENDS.

." We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." —
2 Cor. xiii. 8.

" Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh
away ; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that
it may bring forth more fruit." — John xv. 2.

Among the multitude of smaller Denominations
or Branches of the general church of Christendom,
there are many so insignificant in numbers and in
influence as to demand no special consideration in
a review like that in which I am now engaged.
While there are others so nearly akin to those
already examined, both theologically and ethically,
that they may be dismissed with a few general
remarks. The doctrinal characteristics of these,
so far as they have formulated any, have been
sufficiently analyzed, discussed, and brought into
condemnation in preceding Discourses ; their sepa-
ration from older and larger bodies, for they were
almost universally offshoots from pre-existing churches
and not original creations, having been caused, not by
reason of any radical divergence or change of funda-
mental beliefs, but on account of some minor mat-
ters of external form, rite, or ceremonial observance.
It is the former — the underlying ideas, principles,

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 419

convictions of any and every denomination or reli-
gious sect, rather than any outward ordinance or
ritual, that determines its real moral and spiritual
status, drift, and ultimate attainment. And the
average moral and spiritual condition, tendency,
and result in such a case can never be higher than
its fountain head ; higher than the actual theologi-
cal and ethical principles recognized and approved.
Individuals may be better or worse than the accepted
creed, but the average character and standing of
the organic and closely affiliated body will always
be on a level with it. No religious party, no church
or denomination ever as a whole transcends its
theological and ethical standard. It may fall below
it. And no church or denomination is appreciably
affected, morally and religiously, by its formularies
and merely external ceremonies.

Hence it follows that any radical reform in a
church, any raising it to a higher level of thought
and conduct, to a more perfect Christian life, can
be effected only by going back to fundamental
theological and ethical principles and changing them
for better ones, not by a modification or multipli-
cation of external observances. Personal illumina-
tion or the quickening of the individual conscience,
outside of ecclesiastical standards, or the pressure
of an advancing civilization — the trend of the
world's life may impel a church to mend its ways
in respect to social and civil customs and institu-
tions, as in the instance of the abolition of Americai^^
Slavery or of Russian Serfdom, but unless there is]
an improvement in essential principles of truth arid

420* PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

righteousness its actual moral- standing is essentially
unchanged.

But while I pass thus hastily by the great major-
ity of the minor sects for the reasons specified,
there are a few of them that have a special claim
upon my attention, chiefly for the reason that while
they agree in some respects with the larger denomi-
nations already analyzed and are so far subject to
tjae criticism made in some one or more of my
recent Discourses, they are yet in some other par-
ticulars quite in accord with my own ideal of what
a true church of Christ is, and so far command
my approbation. Of several of them I will speak
separately, as they are sufficiently differentiated
from each other to justify distinctive consideration.
I begin with

The Moravians
Or So-called United Brethren.

Personally, I know nothing of this body of Chris-
tian believers, having never visited any of their
settlements or met any of their representatives,
clerical or lay ; but from what I have learned of them
and of their peculiarities through religious histories,
cyclopaedias, etc. I have formed a high opinion of
them as exemplifying in marked degree the mani-
fold excellences of a true and noble Christian char-
acter, and as constituting collectively not simply a
reputable but a distinguished branch of the general
Christian church. They are said to have sprung
from certain Reformers of Moravia and Bohemia,
who, in the year 1457, sixty years before Luther's

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 421

arraignment of the usurpation and corruption of
the Roman Catholic Church, organized religious
societies upon the basis of what were afterward
deemed the essential principles of Protestantism,
adopted rules of discipline, and took the name of
"Brethren and Sisters of the Law of Christ."
These Reformers and their adherents were greatly
harassed and persecuted, many of their number
suffering martyrdom. This only served to increase
their activity and zeal, resulting in an increase of
converts to such an extent that before the expira-
tion of the century they had more than two hundred
churches well equipped for effective service. They
formed early and friendly relations with Luther and
constituted an important element or factor of the
great Reformation of which he was the reputed
head. After four or five generations of remarkable
prosperity, a series of persecutions was inaugurated
against them by the emperor, Ferdinand II, whose
hatred of all forms of Protestantism led him to adopt
the most violent and bloody measures in order to
overthrow it. His efforts were largely successful
in the provinces named, and the church of "The
Brethren " therein ceased to exist, though many of
its members still cherished its faith and privately
kept its germ alive in anticipation of a future trans^
planting to a more congenial soil. At length, after
nearly a hundred years had passed away, a few
Moravian families, under the leadership of one Chris-
tian David, escaped from their native country, and,
after a tedious journey of eleven days, reached
Berthelsdorf in Saxony, where on an immense

422 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

estate dwelt Count Zinzendorf, a pious young
nobleman, who had become imbued with their spirit,
and who, learning of their sufferings, offered them
a refuge. Others of the faith scattered through
Europe gathered there as time went on, and at the
expiration of five years there was a colony of three
hundred persons living on the Count's outlying
territory. They built a town which they called
Herrnhut, re-established the church of their fathers,
and entered upon a new career of prosperity and
usefulness as a component part of Christendom.
It is said that John Wesley, the founder of Meth-
odism, was greatly influenced to undertake the grand
religious reform in England with which his name
was identified, by his acquaintance with the Mora-
vian Brethren whom he visited at Herrnhut, regard-
ing them, both in respect to their personal piety
and virtue and to their kindly, fraternal social
relations, as illustrating more fully than any other
people he knew the spirit and principles of the
Gospel of Christ.

After becoming fully established in their new
home these refugees inaugurated a missionary enter-
prise for the conversion of men to Christ and the
extension of their own distinctive views, which they
prosecuted with a persistency and zeal unprecedented
in the history of the Protestant faith. And their
efforts were crowned with marvelous success ; their
churches multiplying rapidly at home and their mis-
sion stations finding a place in many foreign lands.
Their policy on the practical side was as far as
possible to separate themselves from the world, to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 423

form settlements of their own, where they could
hold undisturbed communion with God and live
together as United Brethren in Christ. As a
denomination, however, they have never attained
large proportions, numerically considered, though
their churches are to be found in several European
countries and in the United States; — their ecclesi-
astical jurisdiction in this country being divided into
two districts, the northern and southern ; the seat
of government of the former being at Bethlehem,
Penn., that of the latter at Salem, N. C.

Theologically the Moravians would probably be
ranked with the so-called Evangelicals, adhering, as
they do nominally, to the Augsburg Confession and
giving special prominence to the doctrine of the
Atonement, as they interpret and understand it,
though they eschew all forms of dogmatism and
decry the divisions and contentions of the Chris-
tian world. In describing them, Hayward in his
"Book of Religions" says: —

" The Moravians avoid discussions respecdng the specula-
tive truths of religion, and insist upon individual experience
of the practical efficiency of the Gospel in producing a real
change of sentiment and conduct, as the only essential in
religion. They consider the manifestation of God in Christ
as intended to be the most beneficial revelation of the Deity
to the human race, and, in consequence, they make the life,
merits, acts, words, sufferings, and death of the Saviour the
principal theme of their doctrine, while they carefully avoid
entering into any theoretical disquisitions on the mysterious
essence of the Godhead, simply adhering to the words of
Scripture." " They believe that, to live agreeably to the
Gospel, it is essential to aim, in all things, to fulfill the will

424 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of God. Even in their temporal concerns, they endeavor to
ascertain the will of God. They do not, indeed, expect some
miraculous manifestation of His will, but only endeavor to
test the purity of their purposes by the light of the divine
word. Nothing of consequence is done by them, as a society,
until such an examination has taken place ; and, in cases of
difficulty, the question is decided by lot, to avoid the undue
preponderance of influential men, and in the humble hope
that God will guide them right by its decision, where their
limited understanding fails them." " They consider none
of their pecuHar regulations essential, but all liable to be
altered or abandoned, whenever it is found necessary, in
order better to attain their great object — the promotion of
piety."

The Moravians in America have considerably
changed some of their ancient socialistic arrange-
ments, though they are still adhered to by their
European brethren. They were never Communists,
strictly speaking, but yet interpreted Christianity
to require much more fraternity of association and
mutual assistance than the generality of other
churches. Their ecclesiastical system seems to be
a combination of the good in Episcopacy, Presby-
terianism, and Congregationalism, with little of the
evil. They cultivate music and the fine arts, are
patrons of education in its larger aspects, are emi-
nently industrious and economical, have many excel-
lent social customs, and rank high in piety and
morality, in practical obedience to the law of love
to God and man. Their spontaneous, world-wide
missionary enterprise and zeal, already referred to,
have excited the admiration and the emulation of
all Christendom.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 425

REMARKS,
r. The Moravians possess and illustrate many
excellences, rarely to be found elsewhere, that are
worthy of high commendation. But they are not
to be followed too closely or regarded as above
criticism. Their real, fundamental, theological,
and ethical principles, when ascertained, are more
medieval than primitive Christian, and so unsuited
to the work of church reorganization on a pure
Gospel basis. But they practically ignore those
principles, or at least hold them in abeyance, when
they eschew all metaphysical speculation and
polemic discussion concerning them. They decline
such speculation and discussion evidently on the
ground that they provoke internal dissension and
exert a demoralizing influence upon the church, as
illustrated so often in the history of the differing
sects of Christendom. Now if our Moravian breth-
ren do not believe the distinctive doctrines of the
Calvinistic and Arminian schools which have been
examined and shown to be false, unscriptural, mis-
leading, and pernicious, why are they not honestly
and openly disowned and repudiated ? Is it wise
or right or Christian to hide the truth, and espe-
cially the truth touching the most sacred things,
under a bushel } It may be politic to evade contro-
versy and its responsibilities on the part of a small
sect surrounded by a bold and aggressive ortho-
doxy, and to employ Scripture phraseology without
defining what is meant by it, having it tacitly-
understood that it is used in the popular and long-
prevailing sense ; but, if it be not so used, is such a

426 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

course morally right and honorable ? The truth is
this silence and indefiniteness cannot continue
always. The time must come, and that ere long^
when the progressive intellect of those interested
in religion will demand outspoken utterances on
all important doctrines, and then the Moravians
will be compelled to declare their views without
concealment or mental reservation. The under-
standing as well as the religious sentiment of men
must be supplied with proper food.

2. It is well to inquire why a sect of so much
pietistic, moral, and ecclesiastical excellence as the
Moravians possess, combined with so much mission-
ary enterprise and zeal, remains so small and holds
so insignificant a place in the religious world. I
answer, because its standard of personal piety and
social righteousness is too high, strict, and Christ-
like for popular acceptation. To make a religious
body popular and secure its rapid growth it must
do two things ; promise its adherents indemnity
against God's wrath in the next world and require
of them in this world a personal and social right-
eousness not too far in advance of the prevailing
morality of the respectable multitude ; certainly not
so far as to be a perpetual rebuke to the prevailing
fashions, habits, customs, etc., of society at large
and of civil government. In this last particular the
Moravians have failed to observe the essential con-
ditions of numerical success. Their standard has
been too high, too holy, too Christlike to win the
favor of the masses of mankind, and particularly
of those aspiring after political or ecclesiastical

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 42T

honors, emoluments, and rewards. And again,,
because their standard of personal and social right-
eousness was too high for their theology. They
attempted to make themselves and their converts
better than their God ; to make the stream of
human virtue to rise higher than its fountain; —
as great an impossibility in ethics as in physics.
If the Being they worshiped were half as unselfish,
disinterested, merciful as they deemed it their duty
to be, not one soul would ever be left to perish or given
over to endless punishment, as they believed would
be the case. The incongruity between their real
(though unwritten) creed and their ideal life was
too great to render them an efficient working force
in the world. They should mend their creed, or
their lofty aims must suffer decline. It is to be
feared that the latter alternative is taking place in
these later years.

3. It will be seen at once that the Moravian Church
could look with no favor upon my effort to get
back to the primitive basis of Christian fellowship,
co-operation, and unity of faith and practice. My
scheme magnifies the understanding while theirs
undervalues it. Mine makes theology and life har-
monious, theirs in important respects antagonizes
them. Their system of doctrine is medieval and
reactionary; mine is progressive, reconstructive,
prophetic of the coming kingdom of righteousness,
brotherhood, peace, and joy. Commending and
honoring their worth, I look for a better dispensa-
tion, even a heavenly.

428 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The Friends.
This Denomination, and especially the more liberal
and progressive section of it, has attained a much
higher rank and is worthy of a much more unre-
stricted commendation for Christlikeness of faith
and practice than the Moravians, or in fact than
any other religious body in Christendom. It has
never in its organic character, nor in the adminis-
tration of its ecclesiastical polity divorced piety and
morality, faith and works, religion and life, but
maintained throughout its entire history the har-
monious accord existing between the two ; their
intimate and indissoluble relation to each other in
the Christian economy, in the development of a
symmetrical character, and in the ordering of human
conduct in all human affairs. It has truthfully
recognized and magnified the fact of the ever-living
presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the
human soul as a divine Inner Light for the illumi-
nation of mankind and as a Guide in the way of
duty, righteousness, and peace. It has proclaimed
the superiority of this Inner Light and Guide to
all sacraments and rituals, and to the mere letter
of the written Word. It has emphasized the
humanitarian side of Christianity and stood bravely
before the world, and oftentimes against the world,
for those great Reforms of modern times that have
been inaugurated for the purpose of removing some
great existing evil and bettering in some specific
way the condition of mankind. Its members have
borne a faithful, unfaltering testimony against
Intemperance, Chattel Slavery, Capital Punishment

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 42^

and all forms of vindictive penalism, War and its cor-
relatives, and other barbarous customs prevalent
still in so-called civilized lands. Also against oath-
taking, contentious litigation, and many social and
political customs and practices which violate the
Christian law of love to God and man. They illus-
trate among themselves in a large measure the idea
of brotherhood, avoiding wrangling and vain dispute,
caring scrupulously for their own poor and unfor-
tunate, and relieving to the extent of their ability
the suffering and distressed not only of their num-
ber but of the outside world. They have recognized
and respected the inherent oneness of humanity,
regardless of condition, color, sex, or nationality,^
holding with Paul that under a true ethical system
"there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for
all are one in Christ Jesus." They have maintained
a consistent protest against union of church and
state, against the compulsory support of religious
institutions, against sectarian exclusiveness and
vituperation, against all forms of religions obloquy,
hatred, and persecution. They have much also in
their church order and government that deserves
respectful consideration, if not actual imitation and
reproduction.

But while I note these excellences that charac-
terize .my Quaker friends, and am glad to pay
them due honor therefor, there are some errors
and defects in their church system which I feel
in duty bound to expose and condemn ; for, as the seer
of Patmos wrote of the church in Sardis, *' I have not

430 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

found their works perfect before God." They dis-
claim creedism, and yet, in fact, have a creed, no
less real, because unwritten, which, on occasion,
they invest with authority and employ without
question, in order to preserve the unity and integ-
rity of their body and the purity and homogeneity
of their fellowship. They have been much afraid
of intellectualism and rationalism, as if there were
some natural antagonism between reason and reli-
gion— between the powers of the understanding
and the higher emotions of the human heart. For
from this source has there come in their preaching
and writing a large amount of vagueness and mys-
ticism, which is not only an offense to clear-think-
ing minds but an obstacle to distinct and intelligent
apprehension of important themes — of essential
truth. Hence, sentimental platitudes and monoto-
nous generalities with them not infrequently take
the place of well-defined principles of virtue and
piety, of simple, transparent statements of duty ;
thus confusing not only the mental but the spirit-
ual sensibilities and generating a sort of supersti-
tious placidity or emulsive goodyism which is a poor
substitute for virile and sturdy piety and a poor
equipment for a good soldier of Jesus Christ. There
is a striking incongruity to my mind between the
ethics and the theology of the Friends in this
respect. In ethics they are, as a rule, definite,
positive, clear, understandable. All their writings
are of this character. They give no uncertain
sound. But in theology they are obscure, nebulous,
•enigmatical, sometimes unintelligible. They incline

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 431

to give the Supreme Being a somewhat benignant
and parental character as compared with the older
orthodox theologians, but whether or not this char-
acter is instrinsic, vital, and inviolable, determining
His thought, purpose, conduct, throughout all states
and stages of existence, in eternity as well as in
time, to unrepentant sinners no less than to saints,
is more or less uncertain and problematical ; as it
is whether or not the ultimate of His moral gov-
ernment will be complete and universal victory on
His part, a united, harmonious, holy, happy uni-
verse, all souls brought into subjection to Him, or
a divided universe and so a partial failure ; a por-
tion of His human children redeemed from selfish-
ness and sin and hence forever blest, while another
portion, perhaps the larger, is doomed to never-
ending misery and woe, their sighs and groans
through all eternity mingling with "the songs, that
warble from immortal tongues." So far as can be
learned from their expositions and proclamations,
they leave a large part of the human race in end-
less depravity and wretchedness or in impenetrable
obscurity, from which no beneficent providence, no
paternal love of God can ever rescue them.

Moreover, they generally, like the barbaric error-
ists, talk and write of this life as the only one m
which either God or man can put away sin. When
death transpires there is no more will or effort of
God to discipline the wrong-doer and bring him to
repentance, no further opportunity for amendment
and entrance upon a new life, no possibility that
then-existing evil can ever be overcome with good.

432 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

All is fixed and unchangeable. In this world God
is interested in all souls and seeks to save all ;
He is kind to the unthankful and evil ; He loves
His enemies and commands us to imitate Him in
these respects. But in the world to come all this
is changed. Heaven and hell settle down in drawn
battle to all eternity, and goodness, love, truth, in
God and in His redeemed ones, have no further
duty or desire to subdue their opposites and to
bring in the reign of universal holiness and happi-
ness. All this is to be inferred, partly from what
is said and partly from what is not said by our
esteemed fellow-Christians, the Friends, in their
public utterances and denominational manifestos.

All this is irreconcilable with itself, with the
ethical principles and duties enjoined in the same
connection, and with the spirit and teachings of
the Gospel of Christ. I can admit no such incon-
gruities and barbarisms into a plan for the enlight-
enment, uplifting, harmonization, and perfecting of
mankind with which my name is in any way
identified.

Nor could I allow my contemplated regenerate
church to incorporate in its constitutional provisions
or administrative policy such ideas, doctrines, or
opinions as the following, which the Friends more
or less generally hold as important if not essential
to denominational success, viz. : birthright mem-
bership in the church ; the exclusion of music,
pictures, and all symbolic devices from places and
exercises of public worship ; an unpaid ministry the
only true and scriptural Christian ministry, all

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 433

remunerated preachers, teachers, etc., however rea-
sonable and moderate their compensation, being
denounced as "hirelings"; the magnifying into
religious importance, even into a religious duty,
a prescribed style of dress or form of speech
in personal intercourse and the designation of
times and seasons; the prohibition of the rite
of baptism, of the eucharist, and other observ-
ances, though held as privileges and emblems
helpful of a better life to those regarding them
and not as binding sacraments — by no means as
substitutes for personal virtue and piety; claims of
reliability and authority for the Inner Light beyond
what enlightened reason and a pure conscience will
warrant ; freedom from all restrictions or limitations
in the accumulation and use of property on the
part of individuals and corporations ; participation
in civil, sword-sustained governments in such ways
and to such an- extent as to involve the actual
support of what is iniquitous in them and hostile
to the spirit and principles of the Gospel ; resort
to courts of law for the collection of debts, redress
of grievances, the apprehension and punishment of
offenders in cases that involve a final authorized
resort to physical violence ; — all these things I
hold to be errors, defects, or, at least, weaknesses,
to be avoided and disallowed in the work of build-
ing and operating a Christian church on the original
foundation and according to the original plan devised
and commended to us by the Master himself and
his co-laborers of the first century of our Christian
era. On this ground I abjure and repudiate them.

434 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

And yet it is but just for me to say, that while
the great majority of Friends are believed to have
entertained the general views upon theological ques-
tions that I have ascribed to them, there have been,
from near the beginning of their history, those who
more or less openly abjured them and not only held
but advocated more liberal, rational, and humane
ones. As early as 1668, William Penn and George
Whitehead, prominent exponents and defenders of
the general denominational faith and polity, in a
public discussion with a clergyman of the estab-
lished English Church, maintained that the common
doctrine of the tri-personality of God was not found
in the Scriptures. And not long afterwards the
former published a volume in which he claimed
that the prevailing beliefs in regard to vicarious
atonement and imputed righteousness through faith
in Christ were wholly without scriptural or rational
foundation. Though he lived ever after in good
standing with his brethren and though it is proba-
ble there have been others from that day to this
who sympathized with his views or entertained
even more advanced ones, yet has there never been
any break in the church on that account in the
mother country.

On this side the water, however, this unity has
not been preserved. The general atmosphere here
has no doubt been favorable to liberal and progres-
sive ideas and to that frank expression of opinion
upon religious and other subjects which found
illustration among the disciples of George Fox as
well as among other Christian bodies. Under the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 435

leadership of one Elias Hicks, a native of New York
and a man of strong convictions and great force of
character, who rose to prominence as a preacher
and expounder of the Gospel, a movement was
started about the year 1827, looking to a larger and
more rational interpretation of Scripture and pro-
testing against the more general and orthodox views
of the denomination, which resulted a few years
later in an open rupture between the radical
and conservative members that has never been
healed ; each division going on in its own chosen
way without contention or disputation sufficient to
disturb the general harmony or arrest the attention
of the outside world. The more rationalistic and
reformatory of the seceders from the long-established
order, drawn together by a common purpose to wage
more earnest warfare with the great evils of society
than their brethren deemed wise, formed an asso-
ciation some twenty or thirty years ago under the
significant name of " Progressive Friends," whose
annual meetings in Chester Co., Penn., were for a
generation an interesting and instructive feature of
the religious and reformatory history of the times.
As a distinctive organization they have lost their
former standing, if not wholly passed away ; some
of them resuming their previously existing ecclesi-
astical relations, while others have abandoned the
special isi)t of the Friends altogether and distributed
themselves among congenial Protestant sects "out-
side the meeting."

The record of the Friends on the whole, I may
say in closing, has been a most honorable one, —

436 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

one which has imparted most valuable lessons to
the church of the past two hundred and fifty years,
with the sectarianism, dogmatism, denunciation,
belligerancy, indifference to or complicity with pre-
vailing iniquities and barbarisms, which have charac-
terized its different branches ; and one from which
scarcely less important lessons may be derived for
the upbuilding of the church of the future and
the bringing in of a new era to the world.

DISCOURSE XXVI.

GHBISTIANS, SWEDENBOBGIANS, AND SHAKERS.

" Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife ; and
some also of good will;" "what then? notwithstanding, every
way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached ; and
I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." — Phil. i. 15, 18.

I resume my examination of the smaller nominally
Christian Denominations, introducing to my readers
in the present Discourse several whose prominence
in certain sections of our country or whose dis-
tinctive peculiarities entitle them to respectful con-
sideration on my part, if not to my indiscriminate
approval. I begin with a body numbering, it is
claimed, several hundred thousand communicants,
and more than a million adherents in the United
States, who wish to be designated by the simple
name first given the followers of Jesus at Antioch,
viz. : —

Christians.

This Denomination seems to have been distinct-
ively American in its origin, having sprung from
three different directions, East, West, and South
in the early part of the present century ; each

438 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

division being, at first, entirely independent, as it
was ignorant, of the others ; but, upon becoming
acquainted and finding much in common between
them, deciding, after a brief period of time,
to consolidate and form one inteo:ral, org^anic
religious communion. They adopted at the outset
the distinctive name they bear, protesting against
all others; declared the Bible to be their only rule o^
faith and practice, leaving each member to interpret
it for himself; affirmed practical godliness to be the
grand aim and test of fellowship; and avowed the
largest liberality and toleration towards all who gave
evidence of pursuing this aim and of standing this test,
irrespective of doctrinal beliefs, of ritual observances,
and of party affiliations. They generally reject the
dogma of the Trinity and its cognates, — the Adamic
Fall into total depravity. Vicarious Atonement,
Election and Reprobation, and all kindred tenets,
while holding to human sinfulness, the necessity
of regeneration or birth into a higher life, the
practical exemplification of the Christian virtues
and graces, and a just retribution for all workers
of iniquity in time or in eternity. They also hold
to a divinely called ministry, to special seasons of
religious revival, to baptism by immersion, causing
them to be sometimes called Christian Baptists, to
the observance of the Lord's Supper, and to most
church usages common among Protestants. The
majority of them, I think, believe in the second
personal coming of Christ, the resurrection of the
body, and one fixed day of judgment; some of them
in endless punishment, some in the annihilation of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 439

the incorrigibly wicked, and a few in the ultimate
restoration of all souls to the favor of God and
their attainment of the blessedness of heaven ;
though none of these doctrines are to be publicly
professed and preached as of vital importance, or
the acceptance of them to be regarded as a condi-
tion of church membership or of Christian fellow-
ship. I began my religious and ministerial life in
this denomination, but on becoming a so-called
Restorationist was disowned and cast out solely
on that ground, although such procedure was
contrary to their profession of no-creedism and of
a godly life as the only test of discipleship of Christ,
showing that an unwritten creed may be as potent
and quick as a written one to detect heresy and
expel heretics. This transpired so long ago (1822),
and my personal intercourse with this body since
has been so limited that I cannot speak very posi-
tively of their present status, theologically or other-
wise; but it is to be presumed that in common with
most Evangelical sects they have drifted into larger
liberty and a more tolerant spirit.

The Christians, notwithstanding their limitations
and errors, are entitled to much respect and com-
mendation for their personal piety and moral worth,
having attained, in these respects, quite as high
standing in the sight of God as some of the larger,
more popular, and more self-satisfied sects which
affect to despise and scorn them as weakly here-
tics. And so far as zeal for what they deem the
cause of Christ and the salvation of souls is con-
cerned, they will compare favorably with their

440 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

fellow-disciples of other communions, But their
interest and concern seem to center largely in
a future state of being, and in what is to be the
destiny of mankind when they have shuffled off
this mortal coil. The cause of Christ and the sal-
vation of souls relate primarily and chiefly to that
state and destiny ; to deliverance from hell and
the gaining of heaven in the world to come. And
that religion, Christianity, has anything to do with
human character here and now in this world, any
farther than as a preparation or requisite for final
acceptance with God and for eternal blessedness,
seems never to enter their thought any more than
it does the thought of other sects with which they
are brought in contact if not in collision. They
share the common lot of prevailing religious bodies,
orthodox and heteradox alike, being afflicted with
a sort of otherworldjiness which indisposes or dis-
qualifies them for the work of improving human
conditions in this mortal state of existence, of
regenerating society of which they form a part, of
overthrowing the great evils that now afflict the
children of men, and of building up a kingdom of
heaven on the earth. They have never been known
as reformers, and their testimony has never been
heard in opposition to Mammonism, social injustice,
political chicanery and corruption, oath-taking, vin-
dictive punishment, war, etc., or in favor of a radi-
cal change of the social order, the rigid application
of the principles and precepts of the Gospel to politi-
cal life and the international relations of mankind,
the Christianization of industry, property, etc., and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 441

the fraternization of the race. Individuals among
them have probably advanced to a state of personal
and social excellence conformed in large degree to
the New Testament ideal, but not the denomination
as such, not the great majority of its members. An
elect few among them may see the length and breadth,
and height and depth of the Christian claim upon
men, individually and socially, and desire earnestly
to meet that claim, but the many, including the
ruling forces of the body, are very well content
with things as they are — content to occupy the
plane of what may be called the world's better
civilization, with its manifold inequalities and abuses,
in common with other and more popular nominal
Christian denominations. Like them, these ''Chris-
tians " need to be born again before they can see
the true kingdom of God. If what they have attained,
which is scarcely distinguishable from what char-
acterizes respectable unregenerate worldlings, is the
best and the most that Christianity can do for man-
kind, then, as a religion' of redemption, it is a
deplorable failure ; a conclusion which I can never
accept or tolerate without abandoning the positions
which my reason and conscience have compelled
me to assume, and my faith in the Gospel of Christ
as the power of God into the salvation of the
world.

The Swedenborgians.

The Swedenborgian, or ''New Jerusalem Church,"
as its members prefer to have it called, consists
exclusively of persons who believe in the extraordi-

442 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

nary divine illumination and voluminous teachings
of Emanuel Svvedenborg, a most wonderful Spiritual
seer, who, for some twenty-five or more years,
claimed to be in special and orderly communication
with Christ and the inhabitants of the unseen
world, whereby he was enabled to expound to man-
kind the essential truth of the Divine Word hidden
in the letter of Holy Scripture. This singularly
gifted man was born in Stockholm, Sweden, January
29, 1688, and died' in London, England, March 29,
1772. He was the subject of deep religious impres-
sions from his childhood, and early in life evinced
remarkable mental acumen and great fondness for
study. He received the best education to be
obtained in his day, and when 21 years of age
was honored with the degree of Doctor of Phi-
losophy by the University of Upsal. He soon
became proficient in mathematics, mechanics, and
the natural sciences, as well as in questions of
philosophy, publishing works upon these several
subjects which established his reputation as one of
the most profound students of his time.

But it was not in the directions indicated that
Swedenborg gained greatest distinction, or rendered
himself most worthy of the esteem, veneration, and
gratitude of mankind. When he was 57 years of
age, in the full maturity of his powers and at the
height of his fame, " he was called," as he puts it,
"to a new and holy office by the Lord himself,
who manifested himself to him in person, and
opened his sight to a view of the spiritual world,
and granted him the privilege of conversing with

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 443^

spirits and angels." That office was, as before
intimated, to make known the internal spiritual
meaning of the sacred Scriptures, and to the duties
of that office he thereafter devoted himself with
unfaltering diligence, conscientiousness, and zeal,
under the special guidance and inspiration, as he
believed and claimed, of his Master and Lord. His
views were given to the world in a considerable
number of volumes, the contents of which were
condensed and summarized in his last work pub-
lished at Amsterdam the year before his death,,
under the title of "The True Christian Religion^
containing the Universal Theology of the New
Church," etc.

During the life-time of this Swedish Seer the
number of those who received his doctrine was
exceedingly small, and it does not appear that he
made any attempt to establish any organic Ecclesi-
astical relations between them. But certain of them
united in the formation of a church not long after
his decease, and thus started a movement which
has filled its place and done its work in the reli-
gious world in an honorable and praiseworthy man-
ner to this day. Its growth has been slow, owing
to the character of the doctrines it represents, and
the number of persons professing those doctrines
is still comparatively small. It is greatest in
England and the United States, though there are
earnest and zealous New Churchmen to be found
in France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and
indeed in nearly every part of the Christian
world.

444 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Before proceeding to the criticism that I feel con-
strained to make upon the Swedenborgian Church,
I am moved to offer a few commendatory observa-
tions, derived from much careful reading and a
limited personal acquaintance. The members of
that church I regard as an eminently intellectual,
conscientious, high-minded, refined class of people,
justly entitled to the respect, confidence, and admira-
tion of their fellow-religionists and the general
public, for all those personal, social, moral, and
spiritual qualities that characterize and honor the
highest and best ranks of the older and more mas-
sive sects. In their private lives, in their domestic
relations, in civic affairs, in all that goes to make
good citizens, in all that adorns and ennobles human
character or illustrates Christian morality and piety
on the common plane of existing civilization, they
are signally exemplary and worthy ; not excelled, I
honestly believe, by any denomination or religious
party taken as a whole in Christendom. In these
respects and on this common ground I assign them
not simply to an eminent, but to a pre-eminent
place. It is a delight to know such people and to
hold fellowship with them.

And again, in regard to the general ideas, prin-
ciples, doctrines, requirements of the Swedenborg-
ians, and their religious literature, I am free to say
that no person of intelligence can become familiar
therewith without being benefited and blest. The
writings of Swedenborg, and indeed of his adher-
ents generally, cannot be read with an open, recep-
tive mind but with great moral and spiritual profit.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 445

They are charged to the full with instruction, with
encouragement, with inspiration. They contain so
much of truth and good, love and wisdom, profound
thought and clear discernment of divine things,
that I can cordially accept and embrace a very
large part of what I find in them. But this will
not make me a passable New Churchman, even in
my own estimation ; much less in the estimation
of the guardians of the denomination. The funda-
mental defect with me is that I cannot believe in
the plenary divine illumination and entirely reliable
spiritual seership of Swedenborg. If I could, there
would be an end to all doubt and dissent on my
part, and so an end to my system and to all my
dreams of a coming regenerate Christian church. I
should consider the New Jerusalem Church the
ne plus ultra of religious aspiration and attainment,
and hasten into its membership. Convinced as I
am that the Swedish seer was an eminent revealer
of divine truth and of the secrets of the inner
spheres of being, as well as a truly great and
worthy man, I am far from being convinced that
he was an infallible teacher and guide, or that he
was so completely subject to the powers of the
world to come as to be above all psychological
illusion, self-deception, or mistake. In fact, I sus-
pect him very strongly of theological bias resulting
from education and habit of thought, and of a lia-
bility by reason of internal conditions of misappre-
hending the source of his revelations, counting
them objective when they were subjective. Influenced
by such doubts and questionings, I must act the.

446 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

part of critic and eclectic in respect to some of the
most important of his declarations and hypotheses.

In the definitely formulated creed of twelve
articles derived from the disquisitions of Sweden-
borg, which constitute the organic basis and pro-
fessed faith of the New Jerusalem Church, there
are several particulars from which I beg leave to
express my most emphatic and unhesitating dissent,
as follows:

I. I dissent from that part of the first article
of the creed of Swedenborgians which affirms
that Jehovah God, as the Divine Being is named,
**is One both in Essence and in Person, in whom
nevertheless is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit which are the Essential Divinity,
the Divine Humanity, and the Divine Proceeding,
answering to the soul, the body, and the operative
energy in men ; and that the Lord Jesus Christ is
that God." In this affirmation I see not only inex-
plicable mystery but scholastic mystification of a
most objectionable nature, with the incredible
assumption that Jesus Christ is what all his recorded
asseverations positively contradict. Why must that
unscriptural and misleading term. Trinity, be brought
in.? If we have the Essential Divinity of one God,
have we not His whole } What is this so-called
Divine Humanity in God.? Is it something differ-
ent from the Essential Divinity ? Is it anything
but a scholastic invention ? And the Divine Pro-
ceeding, what is that but the Essential Divinity in
motion, actuating and inspiring dependent beings
capacitated for such experiences ? Is it something

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 447

separate from the omnipresent God that goes and
comes without reference to Him ? I object to such
mystical, unscriptural, irrational distinctions which
confuse and distract rather than inform and illume
the ingenuous mind. My God must be an infinite,
all-perfect Spirit, filling all space and duration, and
with whom there can be no up or down, above or
below, here or there ; no coming or going, except
in some metaphorical or spiritual sense easily com-
prehensible by intelligent, self-conscious, divinely
endowed natures. And still more do I object to
the declaration that Jesus Christ is the one only
and absolute God, contrary to the whole tenor of
the Gospel testimonies. That the Infinite Jehovah
ever reduced himself to the organism of a human
being, yea, of an embryonic infant in the order of
human generation, is a notion too senseless, too
absurd, too preposterous for me to entertain for a
moment: I cannot abide it.

2. I dissent in toto from the declaration that
*' Jehovah God himself descended from heaven, as
Divine Truth which is the Word, and took upon
him Human Nature." Does this imply that the
Infinite One was one whit the less in heaven or
the more on earth than before and always } If so,
I believe it not. And the capacity in which he
descended, "as Divine Truth, which is the Word,"
does this mean anything more or less than that
He imparted to His chosen one, Jesus of Nazareth,
a large measure of that Spirit of Wisdom which
in less degree is given as a divine light ''to every
man that cometh unto the world.?" If so, why

448 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

not plainly state it in that way, so that any intel-
ligent person can understand it? Again: "That
by the same acts, which were his temptations, the
last of which was the passion of the cross, he
united in his Humanity Divine Truth to Divine
Good, or Divine Wisdom to Divine Love, and so
returned into his Divinity in which he was from
eternity, together with, and in his Glorified Human-
ity." What a perplexing, incomprehensible, need-
less puzzle is this I What he is this that returned
into his Divinity? "Jehovah God himself." Did he
then vacate his Divinity for the time being? "He
united in his Humanity Divine Truth to Divine
Good, or Divine Wisdom to Divine Love." Indeed !
Where were they before ? W'ere they not in him,
the very essence of his being, always and forever-
more ? What possible change did they undergo,
in his Humanity or out of it ? None whatever
as I can see. These words and phrases are to
me but carefully studied enigmas, obscuring the
mental vision and beclouding the subject to which
they relate. Compare them with the simple,
easily understood Scripture representation of the
Christhood of Jesus, or with my own clearly-
expressed statements upon the same important
themes.

3. "That the sacred Scripture, or Word of God
is Divine Truth itself containing a spiritual sense
heretofore unknown, whence it is divinely inspired
and holy in every syllable," etc. I have never seen
any evidence of the truth of this statement and
hence decline to accept it. To me it is nothing

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 449

but assertion with no basis in fact or in reason.
It is a view of the Scriptures so arbitrar}', artificial,
complex, mystical, that I instinctively reject it. To
my best understanding the verbalism and phraseol-
ogy of the sacred writings are naturally and neces-
sarily human; while their essential truths, ideas,
principles, and spirit, claiming to be inspired of
God, I regard as divitie ; to be cherished, revered,
and exemplified accordingly. As to unlocking the
mysteries they contain with Swedenborg's key of
correspondences, under the notion that every sylla-
ble is holy and has a hidden divine meaning in it,
I have no faith or reverence prompting me to the
task. The whole idea to my mind is fanciful, fic-
titious, misleading, and without warrant of any
sort.

4. I do not hold with the Swedenborgian brethren
" that man at this day is born into evil of all kinds
or with tendencies to it " in the bald, unqualified
sense which the language of their creed implies.
The doctrine as stated savors too much of the
medieval dogma of total depravity, which I have
elsewhere declared to be abhorrent to the better
instincts of the human heart and libellous towards
God, the Father of all mankind. Man's essential
nature is good and only good, but liable to perver-
sion and abuse, and subject, more or less, to demor-
alizing influences from within and without, as it is
to elevating and redeeming ones ; the latter being
the mightier of the two and in the end the all-
prevailing ones. Nor do I believe in the New
Church afifirmation of the Equilibrium between

450 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

good and evil as the basis of man's moral freedom ;
or between heaven and hell as necessary to the
existence of the divine moral order of the world
and universe. Nor can I accept the idea that the
Second Advent of the Lord, or the descent of the
New Jerusalem from God out of heaven, was
co-incident with, if not realized in, the spiritual
seership of Swedenborg and the founding of the
church bearing his name. And I cannot allow the
claims that are made for the permanent obligatori-
ness and sacramental efficacy of baptism and the
Lord's Supper in the administration of ecclesiasti-
cal affairs and the prosecution of the work of
Christ in the world. Nor, perhaps, could I approve
snd sanction certain other but less important doc-
trines peculiar to the class of professing Christians
under consideration.

5. Finally, I object to and utterly repudiate the
Swedenborgian dictum of the eternity of the hells ;
that is, of endless, voluntary sinfulness and misery,
of the everlasting continuance of evil, however
modified or accommodated to refined and sensitive
natures of the present day. On this matter I have
expressed my well-settled convictions with sufficient
fullness, lucidity, and emphasis in the first volume
of this series, and will not go over the already
covered ground again.

Having thus presented and discussed the chief
points of contention with my New Church brethren,
I might, were it needful to the execution of my
present design, turn the tables and enumerate a
few of the many particulars of the Swedenborgian

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 451

theology, morality, eschatology, and ecclesiastical
polity, which I heartily admire, accord with, and
enjoy. I cheerfully acknowledge that I have perused
the works of their great leader and prophet with
profound interest and lasting benefit, and my inter-
course with some of his most cultured, able, and
honored disciples and expositors, has been to me
a source of never-to-be-forgotten edification, satis-
faction, and delight. Nevertheless, this people, as
a rule, excellent in so many respects as they are,
seem to be quite content with the existing social
order under which exists a vast amount of selfish-
ness, injustice, brutality, legalized murder, penury,
want, and woe, never dreaming that Christianity
requires them to abjure all these things and
renounce a system which nourishes and perpetu-
ates them, and never contemplating or attempting
a movement which should effect a radical trans-
formation and bring a better era in — the reign in
all human affairs of righteousness, equity, brother-
hood, and peace — the promised kingdom of God.
Exemplary and worthy as they are, they yet as a
body do not illustrate the ideal Christian character ;
they have not attained to what constitutes the
requisites of a model Christian church. For this
reason, as well as for others already indicated, I
cannot regard the Swedenborgian church otherwise
than provisional and temporary, preparing the way
with others it may be for that church of the future
which in some coming day will, I have no doubt,
be built, and whose building will be the redemption
of the world.

452 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The Shakers.

Of this singular sect or class of professing Chris-
tians I am impelled by a sense of justice as well
as by feelings of respect to say a few things though
not all that I could wish, did space permit. It is
characterized by many peculiarities which I can
only hint at but not fully describe. It is of com-
paratively modern origin, having arisen in and
around Manchester, England, about the year 1770.
It was to begin with an offshoot from the Society
of Friends or Quakers, and, by reason of certain
features in their mode of worship, its adherents
have been often called Shaking Quakers, though
the name they prefer is that of ** United Believers
in Christ." They retain many of the scruples of the
parent body, especially with reference to oath-taking^
slavery, war, etc., though differing considerably there-
from in other respects. The founders of the denomi-
nation were Jane and James Wardley, though that
honor is generally ascribed to one Ann Lee, a
women of much natural ability and of strange
experiences and manifestations, which she claimed
were of spiritual origin and qualified her for a reli-
gious teacher, preacher, and guide. She exercised
a wonderful power over a certain class of people
and gained a considerable following in a brief space
of time. Her speech and conduct and those of
her adherents aroused much opposition, even unto
persecution, and they migrated in a body from
their native land to the United States in 1774,
locating at Watervliet, near Albany, N. Y., which
has been the headquarters of the brotherhood on

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 453

these shores ever since. They increased in num-
bers considerably for a time and founded settle-
ments or villages in several of the northern states
of the Union. They are celibate Communists in
both theory and practice, and their most striking
peculiarity is their unitary mode of life — men,
women, and children dwelling together in their
respective localities as one great family, though
without those conjugal and parental ties that char-
acterize ordinary family life.

This peculiar people are professed anti-creedists,
yet they have very definite and pronounced religious
beliefs, which may be summarized in a single para-
graph. They acknowledge the existence of one
God, who is not Triune but Dual in nature and
manifestation, possessing both male and female
qualities which render Him alike Father and Mother
of mankind. They ascribe to Deity attributes of
the highest benevolence, wisdom, and power, under
the impulse of which He guides and governs all
things. They are avowed Spiritualists, and claim
to have had from the beginning more or less relia-
ble manifestations and revelations from the unseen
realm of being. They hold that Jesus Christ and
Ann Lee, their reputed founder, were both pre-
eminently filled with the Spirit of God, and were
thereby enabled to make known the Divine Perfec-
tions and Will — the former representing the pater-
nal elements of the Infinite One, the latter, the
maternal, giving her the familiar name of Mother
Ann Lee. They understand the Scriptural doctrine
of the resurrection to be a moral and spiritual

454 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

rising out of the death of trespasses and sins, prac-
tically identical with true Regeneration. This intro-
duces its subjects into the kingdom of God, whether
experienced on earth or in the spirit world. In
that kingdom they maintain there is no marriage
or sexual relationship, and no separate and selfish
personal interests, but all members are co-equal and
all possessions are common and held for the com-
mon and universal good. Hence their distinctive
form of domestic and social life. But this mode
of life, which is at once the fruit and proof of
regeneration, must be wholly voluntary; not entered
upon nor continued by constraint, over-persuasion,
or any considerations of a worldly or self-seeking
nature. In the regenerate state all oath-taking,
vindictive punishment, resort to brute force, war,
and participation in worldly governments, are tran-
scended and forever disallowed. Consequently they
dwell together in communities or villages exclu-
sively their own, which, though subject to "the
powers that be " within whose jurisdiction they
exist, constitute a unitary, self-dependent, and self-
governing theocracy ; a miniature kingdom of God
on earth. As such they provide for themselves all
the necessaries and comforts that conduce to human
welfare, material and spiritual, industrial, intellect-
ual, moral, social, and religious, in the attainment
of which they have been pre-eminently successful.
In personal character they are above reproach ; as
citizens of the commonwealth of mankind they are
worthy of scrupulous emulation. They hold to the
immortality of the soul, to progress in the 'future

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 465

life, though, if I am rightly informed, there will be
a remnant of finally impenitent, who, refusing all
offers of grace, will continue in sin and be kept in
durance vile therefor forever and ever.

What now shall I say of the Shakers, or, as they
prefer to be designated, the " United Society of
Believers"? I am free and happy to admit that
as a body they have great merits ; that certain of
their doctrines and principles are unquestionably
Christlike; and that some of their domestic and
social arrangements are worthy of earnest consid-
eration if not of adoption. The truth and good
embodied in their system of faith and life put to
shame in some respects most of the popular
denominations in Christendom. And yet, as now
persuaded, I must eschew and repudiate many of
their sectarian tenets and other peculiarities. It
seems to me purely imaginative and fanciful to
regard the Supreme Being as Dual after their
fashion — male and female. I prefer to contemplate
Him as one and indivisible, the omnipresent Spirit,
transcending all human distinctions and relation-
ships, and yet representing unto perfection all
possible mental and moral excellences of manhood
and womanhood combined. The name " Father "
is to me quite as expressive of the All-perfect
as the duplex one '* Father and Mother," and
much less confusing. The use of the latter is in
my view an uncouth fancy, which I cannot endorse
or hardly respect.

Again, I have no evidence that Ann Lee, famil-
iarly called "Mother Ann," was in any proper sense

466 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the counterpart of Jesus Christ, raised up and
empowered like him t<p bring the truth and grace
of God to a needy world. I am, moreover, altogether
sure that the resurrection taught in the New Testa-
ment is primarily the transition of man's personal
entity from the present world of flesh and sense
to a world of unseen spiritual verities, and that
the use of the word to represent the rising out of
a life of selfishness and sin into one of holiness
and love, making it the equivalent of regeneration,
is figurative and typical rather than literal.

There is in my judgment a holy chastity of celi-
bacy, the practice of which is allowable and even
commendable for persons inclined thereto under
circumstances of given peculiarity. And there is
also, I believe, an equally holy chastity of connu-
biality, which makes orderly marriage, resulting in
home life and the procreation and rearing of off-
spring, a component part of the divine order and
a sacrament unto God. Neither celibacy nor mar-
riage, however, can in itself be regarded as a fruit
or test of that renewed life which is the end and
aim of the Gospel of Christ. So of the matter of
holding and using property. It is to my mind
proper, right and desirable for some people of
advanced Christlikeness, if so disposed, to make of
their material possessions a common stock, collec-
tion, or repository, as the Shakers do, drawing
therefrom for the common supply of the needs of
life, and to dwell together in close communal rela-
tions during mutual convenience and satisfaction.
But I do not deem it wise, best, or desirable for

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 457

all Christians to follow that course or attempt to
follow it. There is, I am cMifident, a natural, just,
innocent right of private ownership of property*
which never should be ignored, denied, taken away,
or voluntarily relinquished, even by those who from
conscientious motives enter the closest fraternal or
communal relationships. This right should be
maintained and held inviolate, not alone for justi-
fiable personal reasons but as a safeguard against
the usurpations and tyrannous exactions of irre-
sponsible and unscrupulous power, when exercised
towards the weak, dependent, less resolute, and
self-assertive classes of mankind. When properly
appreciated and cherished this right conduces to
personal independence, self-respect, freedom from
corroding care, and many of the higher attributes
of human character and nobler purposes of human
life. The same may be said of personal rights in
other respects — in a general sense. They are
never, under any pretext whatsoever, to be put out
of sight, to be disregarded, to be trampled under
foot, to be ignominiously abandoned or sacrificed.
I am a Christian Socialist of a pronounced type,
but never to the annihilation of the God-derived
personality of any man, women, or child ; never to
the absorption of the individual in the common
mass ; nor to the obliteration of that sense of
responsibility in the human breast which holds
■each soul and the whole universe of souls in
unshaken loyalty to the eternal law of righteous-
ness and to Him whose right it is to rule, God over
all, blessed forevermore. The conclusion of this

458 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

whole matter concerning the Shaker brotherhood
is that with all the truth and good, in faith and
practice, individually and socially, it embodies and
exemplifies, it is not the model Church of Christ,
the universal extension and actualization of which
upon the earth would be the. promised coming of
the divine kingdom and the redemption of the race.
Its excellences are to be recognized, honored, and
garnered as the foretokens of the final grand con-
summation ; while its weaknesses, imperfections, and
defects are' to be disowned, rejected, overcome,
transcended ; as I have no doubt that, in the over-
ruling providence of the good God, they some day
will be.

DISCOURSE XXVII.

UNIVEBSALIST AND UNITABIAN DENO^IINATIONS :
CONCL USION.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away." And he that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." — Rev.
xxi. I, 5.

The Universalists.

The distinguishing characteristic of this denomina-
tion of professing Christians is a belief in the doc-
trine of the final holiness and happiness of the
whole family of mankind. Some of its members
(though few in these later days) hold that all punish-
ment for sin is limited to the present state of
existence, while others, the large majority, maintain
that it extends into the future life, and is of indefinite
and varying duration there ; but all agree that it is
administered whether here or there in the spirit of
kindness, is intended and calculated to promote the
ultimate good of those who experience it, and will
sooner or later terminate in and be succeeded by a
condition of perfect and endless purity, harmony, and
bliss. Their theological position in the religious
world was definitely formulated at a General Con-
vention of delegates from the churches of the body

460 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in the United States, held at Winchester, N. H., in
1803, ^^^^ published under the name and in the form
following, to wit: — »

PROFESSION OF BELIEF.

" Art. I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God,
and of the duty, interest, and final destination of mankind.

"Art. 2. We believe that there is one God whose nature is
love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of
grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to
holiness and happiness.

" Art. 3. We believe that holiness and true happiness are
inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful
to maintain order and practice good works; for these things
are good and profitable unto men."

[In justice to those particularly concerned it should
be stated that while the above-given "Winchester
Confession," as it is sometimes called, may be con-
sidered as representing the consensus of theological
opinion in the Universalist Church, it is not regarded
as a creed in the strict sense of the term, nor as of
absolute binding obligation upon each and every
individual member ; nor is the acceptance of it made
a test of Christian character or the condition of
denominational fellowship. The basis of fellowship,
as established by the General Convention which met
in Boston, A. D. 1899, is: ** I. The acceptance of
the essential principles of the Universalist Faith, to
wit: (i) The Universal Fatherhood of God ; (2) The
spiritual authority and leadership of his Son, Jesus
Christ; (3) The trustworthiness of the Bible as con-
taining a revelation from God ; (4) The certainty of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 461

just retribution for sin; (5) The final harmony of all
souls with God. And II. The acknowledgment of
the authority of the General Convention and assent
to its laws." — Ed.]

REMARKS.
I. A belief in the final holiness and happiness of
all men has been held in some form by individuals
and by prominent schools of Christian thought from
the earliest ages of the church ; but it was never
made the basis of a distinctive denomination until
about a century ago. Persons holding the doctrine
in this country then began to organize, thus estab-
lishing a nucleus around and from which has grown
up the present considerable and worthy sect of
Universalists. Their nominal creed, as before quoted,
has not been changed, [although assigned a new
place in their system, as indicated, — Ed.] and like
their name is of such indefinite and comprehensive
nature as to have proved admirably adapted to their
convenience and success. If they were Trinitarians,
Sabellians, or Unitarians, as all of these classes have
had representatives in their ranks, their creed was
equally satisfactory. If they were of Calvinistic,
Arminian, or Pelagian proclivities in certain direc-
tions, there was no pinch or friction. If they held
to much, little, or no future retribution, there was
room for all shades of opinion on that point. And
so if some were extremely pietistic, and others only
moralistic, and still others only theologically sympa-
thetic, the same freedom prevailed. The one distinct-
ive, central, grand doctrine, salvation for all men

462 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

under a government of a God whose name and whose
nature is love, through the mediation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, "who gave himself a ransom for all to be
testified in due time," by the operation of the Holy
Spirit vouchsafed "to every man to profit withal" —
this doctrine was made conclusively definite and
paramount, overshadowing all lesser questions, har-
monizing all differences, and securing a nominal
union at least of all who bore the name of Univer-
salist.

2. The great mission of the Universalist denom-
ination seems to have been to make an effectual
protest against the abominable doctrine of "Endless
Punishment" and its brood of kindred errors. These
had been so rooted, confirmed, and dominant in the
nominal Christian church from the fifth century
onward as to be incurable by individual effort, or by
considerable bodies of dissenters operating inside
the long-prevailing ecclesiasticism of Christendom.
A compact, strong, self-dependent, courageous body
of protesters, well organized on the basis of final
Universal Salvation and well-equipped for permanent
service, was needed, in order to arrest public atten-
tion, compel intelligent and thorough investigation
of the subject involved, expose the falsity and
enormity of the dogma in question and its allied
fallacies, and compel the gradual expulsion of the
whole impious and hateful throng from the doctrinal
formularies and acknowledged religious beliefs of
the civilized world. Much has been done, not by the
Universalists alone, though they have been the
leading human agency in the work, but by a varied

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 463

instruQientality, toward the accomplishment of the
end in view. The final result, however, is still in
the future; yet will it surely be achieved and at
no far-off day. The drift of theological ideas, the
growing intelligence, virtue, and piety of all
branches of the church, and the good Providence
of the good God unite to make assurance upon
this matter doubly sure.

3. In order to the accomplishment of their denom-
inational mission, it was not necessary that the
Universalists, either in their leaders or as a body,
should be a more reverent or zealous people than
the members of the older sects, and it is not claimed
that they were ; but it was necessary that their
common, substantial morality should average as high
in the common relations of life and in civil society ;
and this in a large measure has been the case. It
was not necessary that they should possess more of
the learning of the school and university ; more of
what may be called culture, erudition, literary taste
and accomplishment, etc., than their partialistic oppo.
nents. For many years, it is probable, they did not
have as much. But it zvas necessary that they should
have as much natural ability, good common sense,
practical judgment, power of reasoning, mental vigor
and acumen. And in these qualities they have not
been wanting — they have more than averaged with
their religious contemporaries of any and every class
or party. Had they not possessed a stern, uncom-
promising, commanding moral sense — the central
element of character — and a correspondingly clear
apprehension of the supreme claims of eternal moral

464 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

principles — justice, mercy, benevolence, etc., they
would never have had an instinctive abhorrence of
the doctrine of endless punishment and its kindred
notions as intolerably cruel and pitiless, and as
derogatory to the divine perfections ; nor would they
have ever made any bold, vigorous, persistent protest
against it; but would have tamely acquiesced in the
popular opinion concerning it. And if they had not
been favored by nature and Providence with strong
minds, good judgment, and superior reasoning
faculties, they could never have maintained their
position against their antagonists, among whom were
men of the greatest intellectual and polemic ability
in the civilized world. As it was, and as they were,
they, in a very homely and inelegant, sometimes in
an ungracious and seemingly coarse manner, assailed
the offensive and monstrous doctrine in question
without fear or favor, and exposed its fallacy and
atrocity, without equivocation or apology. That
there was no such God as the doctrine implied they
knew beyond all controversy, no silch divine govern-
ment of the world, no such horrible, unending, worse
than useless doom for any of the children of the
infinite Father of all mankind. There was no
reason, no justice, as there was certainly no mercy,
in such alleged retribution for sin. Moreover, the
Bible, which they could quote as readily as their
opponents, like reason and common sense, taught that
God was perfect in goodness, wisdom, and power ;
that He would have all men to be saved; that He sent
His Son into the world to save the whole world and
not a part of it ; that Christ should reign mediatorially.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 465

"till he hath put all enemies under his feet ;" and
then, when victory was complete, should himself
become subject to the Father, that He might "be all
in all." It taught that men should be judged at the
divine bar according to their deeds ; that while the
good would be rewarded for their virtues the bad
would also be punished for their iniquities ; not vin-
dictively, not to an infinite degree, not in a way or to
an extent calculated to confirm them in sin and
rebellion forever, but in a way that should sooner or
later subdue them, work out their reformation, and
make them partakers of the divine holiness and bliss.
The threatenings of God could not in the end prevail
against the promises of God. It did not require
great learning or polished culture to fire volleys of
this sort, drawn from such a magazine, into the ranks
of the enemy. Plain, common sense men and women
could do it; much more strong-minded, sagacious,
abundantly-equipped Universalist doctrinaires and con-
troversialists. And no D. D.s or lay dialecticians of
any school could successfully resist the attack ; could
answer the argument. They could quote Scripture
threatenings, passing by its larger promises; they
could denounce the stout-hearted disbelievers in an
endless hell as heretics, deluded by the devil and
bound for eternal perdition ; all of which made no
more impression upon the sort of mind they had to
deal with than baying at the moon, and accomplished
as little for the cause it was designed to bulwark and
defend. They were in a bad plight. The mode of
warfare they employed reacted upon themselves.
The charo:es of the assailants were not met. Con-

466 PRIMITIVE CHRrSTIANITY

sequently the old error gradually gave way. The
new and larger faith grew continually though slowly,
permeating the more conservative and traditionary
churches, until at length it gained the respect of all
fairminded people, and, to a considerable extent has
modified, if it does not dominate, the belief of the
church universal; showing that the day of its triumph
is dawning and will ere long burst in glory upon the
world.

4. The Universalists, to begin with, were of
three different classes of people ; different but not
antagonistic, (i) There were a few profoundly and
truly religious persons — benevolent, conscientious,
devout — to whom any idea or doctrine derogatory
to the character of the heavenly Father and ascrib-
ing to Him a course of conduct towards sinners
inherently useless and merciless was utterly abhor-
rent and unendurable. (2) A still larger class was
composed of persons whose reason and common
sense revolted instinctively from a view of God
and the moral government of the world which
was absurd and preposterous in itself and evi-
dently born of ignorance, superstition, and barbarism.
(3) Another class was made up of such persons as
usually hang upon the skirts of any new movement
that seems to promise them immunity from irksome
restrictions, larger liberty of thought and conduct,
and more personal ease, comfort, and enjoyment.
At present the first class is increasing, the second
improving, the third slowly vanishing ; a hopeful
condition of things for the denomination, for pure
and undefiled religion, and for humanity.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 467

This being so, it might be asked why the Uni-
versalist Church is not about well enough in itself
and in its promise for the future. In other words,
why is it deemed necessary to announce a different
standard of faith or to labor for a higher, more
perfect form of religious ecclesiasticism than it
represents — for a more Christlike church. For
several reasons. In the first place, the Creed or
Profession of Belief adopted as the basis of the
Universalist denomination is too vague and indefi-
nite in my judgment as a declaration of principles
or as a form of administration for the effectual
prosecution of the work in hand. It does not in
the first article clearly state on what ground, in
what way, and to what extent, the Scriptures are
a revelation of the character of God and a disclos-
ure of the duty and destiny of mankind. The same
indefiniteness exists in regard to God, Christ, the
Holy Spirit, sin, punishment, salvation, and other
vital points of Christian truth. In the next place
the Universalist Church does not sufficiently mag-
nify and set forth the claims of the divine law of
righteousness, nor proclaim and urge upon the
hearts and consciences of men the great duties that
appertain to the life of the individual, and espe-
cially to social order and progress. And again, it
does not propose or set up any higher or more
Christlike standard of personal, domestic, social, or
civic virtue or excellence than that which is repre-
sented in so-called civilization, whose potency and
final appeal center in statute law, in vindictive
punishment, and in the supremacy of injurious

468 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

force and violence in the last resort. It vies with
the Calvinistic, Arminian, and other classes of pro-
fessing Christians, in subordinating Christianity to
worldly governmentalism in its practical application
to human affairs. It seeks to build up no kingdom
of God on earth distinct from and superior to the
existing social and political order. So that were
all men converted to Universalism, as it now isy
the world would go on very much as it now does.
This is a test that I am compelled to apply to
every religious body whose claims are presented
to me for examination and judgment. Applied to
the Universalist Church it is found wanting, and
I therefore look for a truer, higher, more Christlike
one, yet to be established on the earth.

The Unitarians.
In considering and passing judgment upon the
denomination bearing the distinctive name of Uni-
tarian, I propose to regard it chiefly as it now
exists in the United States, and as it is repre-
sented in that general comprehensive organization
known as the *' National Conference of Unitarian
and other Christian Churches," though the qualify-
ing words "and other Christian" are virtually a
misnomer. The particular doctrine from which its
name is derived, that of the Unity of God as
opposed to that of the Trinity, appeared very early
in the history of the church, and although regarded
by the dominant eeclesiasticism as a heresy, has
had a place among religious controversalists and
philosophers and in religious literature through all

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 469

the succeeding generations. Cherished at first- as
a mere speculation or private opinion by individual
thinkers of more or less prominence in ecclesiastical
affairs, it ere long took the name of Sabellianism
and later of Arianism, under both of which titles
it was put under the ban of both church and state.
In the time of the so-called Reformation, it was
one of the most pronounced forms of opinion that
claimed the attention of the religious public, one
Faustus Socinus, an Italian theologian, being its
leading advocate and promulgator ; whence its more
modern name in European polemics, Socinianism.
Through the influence of Socinus and others. Uni-
tarian churches were established in Switzerland,
Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, etc., and the long-
ostracized faith became an important factor in the
development of a rational and progressive Chris-
tianity on the continent. Unitarianism sprang up
in England soon after the breaking away of the
national church from Romanism, and has main-
tained a respectable and influential though a sub-
ordinate position among the dissenting sects of the
kingdom unto this day.

While the distino^uishino^ and central doctrine of
the Unitarian body from the beginning has been
and is, as stated, that of the Divine Unity as
opposed to the Trinity, yet have there been asso-
ciated with it certain other doctrines scarcely less
important as component parts of a distinct system
or school of theologic thought. Among these are
the strict humanity of Christ, the impersonality of
the Holy Spirit, the dignity and worth of human

470 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

nature as opposed to its total depravity, the
Fatherhood of God, the sonship and brotherhood
of man, atonement for sin, not by vicarious sacri-
fice and a substituted righteousness, but by moral
transformation and growth into the divine likeness,
the reformatory nature and design of punishment, and
in these later years universal progress and the
ultimate redemption of all mankind.

Unitarianism in this country as I am disposed
to treat it, is, in a general way, set forth in the
Constitution of the National Conference before
referred to, especially in the Preamble and in the
Ninth Article, both of which I quote in full.
"Whereas the great opportunities and demands
for Christian labor and consecration at this time
increase our sense of the obligations of all disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ to prove their faith by
self-denial and by the devotion of their lives and
possessions to the service of God and the upbuild-
ing of the kingdom of His Son," etc. " Re-affirm-
ing our allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ
and desiring to secure the largest unity of the
spirit and the widest practical co-operation, we
invite to our fellowship all who wish to be follow-
ers of Christ."

[It is proper to state that the Unitarians, like
the Universalists, have modified this, their former
basis of organization and fellowship, for the pur-
pose of securing a more complete unity and a larger
liberty for those of common sympathies and aims
who are alike devoted to the cause of pure and
undefiled relioion and to the work of establishin.2:

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 471

the kingdom of God on the earth. Their present
manifesto passed unanimously by the National Con-
ference, Sept. 26, 1894, reads as follows: — "The
Conference of Unitarian and other Christian
Churches was formed in the year 1865 with the
purpose of strengthening the churches and societies
which should unite in it for more and better work
for the kingdom of God. These churches accept
the religion of Jesus, holding in accordance with
his teaching that practical religion is summed up
in love to God and love to man." — Ed.]

The Unitarian denomination, as may be judged
from the above, is decidedly opposed to creeds or
definite statements of theological belief, to be
formally accepted by those who enter its member-
ship, but it has always maintained that it was
loyally and distinctively Christian. In church gov-
ernment its adherents and confessors are extreme
Congregationalists, jealous of everything that savors
of infringement upon personal liberty of thought and
the right of private judgment in matters of faith
and practice. They incline therefore, as a body,
to a strict and ultra individualism, are inveterately
averse to every kind of ecclesiastical domination
and conventionalism, and deny all assumptions of
authority on the part of Councils, Synods, Presby-
teries, etc.; their own conferences and the decretals
issued thereby being invested with only advisory
power. As a natural result of this radical individ-
ualism, some of those formerly in fellowship with
them have gone quite outside of the Christian con-
fession into what is vaguely termed "Free Religion,"

472 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and a few others still further, into Agnosticism or
utter unbelief in religion of any kind or name.

On the negative side of theology all Unitarians
agree in repudiating the medieval doctrines of the
Trinity, the Fall in Adam, Total Depravity, Elec-
tion and Reprobation, Vicarious Atonement, and
Endless Punishment. On the positive side no such
unanimity exists, but contrariwise a wide and heter-
ogeneous diversity. In regard to the nature, rank, and
mission of Jesus Christ, opinion among them ranges
from high Arianism, scarcely distinguishable from
moderate Trinitarianism, to that simple humanita-
rianism which makes him only a remarkably
spiritually endowed and developed man ; chosen,
commissioned, qualified for the work of human sal-
vation, in no different sense from what the rest
of mankind are. So of their views of the Hebrew
and Christian Scriptures. Some deem them divinely
inspired to a very large extent, though not plena-
rily so, while others ascribe to them no inspiration
at all, save what characterizes the writings of all
good men in all ao:es of the world. And between
these two extremes there are almost innumerable
grades of opinion among them. Agreeing in the
general idea of the dignity and worth of human
nature, yet their notions of its actual moral state,
of its imperfection, perversity, culpability, wicked-
ness, and guilt, are greatly diversified. Something
of the same variety of thought prevails among
them in respect to the freedom of the will, regen-
eration, the agency of the Holy Spirit, moral
accountability, and even of human duty in the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 473

multiform relations of life. Nor is there unanimity
of conviction concerning the final destiny of man-
kind. While probably none of them hold to the
dogma of never-ending torture as a punishment for
the sinner, yet no doubt some do hold to the idea of
the never-ending consequences of sin — of the ever-
lasting putting backward of the soul in its progress
Godward as a result of persistent wrong-doing.
Others confessedly believe in annihilation as the
end to which the incorrigibly wicked at length come,
the non-use or abuse of the higher and otherwise
undying ppwers of human nature causing their ulti-
mate extinction. It is to be inferred, moreover,
that there are those nominally in the Unitarian fold
who doubt, if they do not openly deny, the doctrine
of immortality altogether, surmising if not believing
that "death ends all." But there is unquestionably
a large class of them, presumably the great majority,
who agree with their Universalist brethren in the
ultimate holiness and happiness of the entire human
race — of all the children of the infinite Father.

From all this it will be seen that the Unitarians
could not if they would, and would not if they
could, adopt any such definitive creed as those of
the dominant sects, or even as the one I propose.
Yet they have their own peculiar mission as a denomi-
nation, as the Universalists have. That mission
seems to be two-fold — to expose and explode the
gross corruptions of the church at large in regard
to the Trinity and correlative errors of the so-called
Evangelical theology ; and to rescue individual free-
dom of investigation, opinion, and expression, from

474 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the thraldom to which the old-creedists have so
long subjected it. Such is their distinguishing
work, and they have done and are doing it
thoroughly and well. They serve other important
ends, but mostly in common with other sects. In
the particulars named, the service is peculiarly their
own and differentiates them from all other laborers
in the field. And yet this work is preparative not
perfective; it is provisional and not final. Some-
thing more definite as respects fundamental truth,
more thorough in regard to required duty, more
constructive in the way of building up a new
church according to the primitive pattern and a
new civilization on a pure Christian basis, is needed,
and must, in the perfect order of a perfect provi-
dence of a perfect God, inevitably follow. This is what
I believe, hope for, and would, if possible, promote.
The Unitarians as a body, both constitutionally
and historically, are of a different type of mind
and of saintship from the Universalists, though in
cordial agreement with them in several important
particulars, if not in all the essential doctrines of
a rational and liberal faith. They are less definite
and positive in their religious ideas, less uncom-
promising and aggressive in asserting them, less
severe, brusque, and courageous in manner and
method of denominational action. They have had
in the past more of what may be called culture,
intellectual refinement, literary taste, though their
superiority in this respect is gradually disappearing,
but not more real strength of mind, power of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 476^

expression, or -didactic skill. With marked tenden-
cies to radicalism in theology of late, they yet in
the past have been more conservative, cautious,
non-committal, and more indisposed to offend the
tastes or prejudices of people to whom they were
theologically opposed. But this characteristic is
now much less noticeable than formerly. They
may be regarded as representing to date the more
dignified, aristocratic element in the revolt of
modern times against the errors and monstrosities
of the partialistic systems of faith ; the Universal-
ists the more democratic. Unitarian preachers and
expositors have spoken more to the studious*
scholarly, erudite classes in the religious world ;
those of the Universalist denomination more to
the rank and file — the plain, common people
therein. Both found an appropriate and needful
field in which to labor, both were well-equipped
for their respective tasks, and both have wrought
a most beneficent, excellent, and praiseworthy
work. Both too have been abundantly prospered
and blest in witnessing a rich harvest as the
reward for their efforts, — in seeing the great doc-
trines and ideas for which they have separately
and unitedly stood, not only cotnmanding attention
but making their way into all opposing parties and
sects, modifying the creeds, ennobling the beliefs,
and re-casting the teaching and the lives of Chris-
tian professors throughout Christendom — a con-
summation to the attainment of which they have
each contributed in due and praiseworthy degree.

In contrast with the so-called Orthodox sects, it
may be added that the Unitarians have never taken

476 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

on the assuming, offensive, denunciatory, sometimes
coarse and abusive manners that have character-
ized certain of the clergy and evangelists of the
opposition — especially in times of religious excite-
ment and under given forms of emotional revival-
ism. They have perhaps erred in an opposite
direction and to their own disadvantage. They
have been too amiable, circumspect, unobtrusive,
to be popular with the multitude, who prefer to be
taken by storm and to be handled by smart drivers,
or to secure that hearing and success among the
more thoughtful and high-minded which the truth-
fulness and excellence of their message merited
and required. In this respect they are improving
and as a result are gaining a larger hearing and
a larger recognition as a factor in the religious
progress of the age, and a more rapid growth as a
branch of the universal church of Christ. If we
take the noblest specimens of saintliness and mer-
itorious service whose names adorn and glorify their
calendar, such as William EUery Channing, Samuel J.
May, and others of kindred spirit, clerical and lay,
it is not too much to say that they have given
the Christian world lessons by precept and exam-
ple of the grandest type of moral and spiritual
excellence, closely resembling those of the Master,
the leaven of which will yet reach and permeate
and vitalize the whole vast lump of humanity.
If the denomination were a united, compact body
of men and women like the persons named, well-
equipped and marshalled for service under a wise
and efficient leadership, it would go forth irresisti-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 477

bly "conquering and to conquer," no power on
earth being able to withstand its victorious march.
But it is not so organized, equipped, and led, these
very model men themselves perhaps, the great mass
of members certainly, still clinging too tenaciously,
or at least too exclusively, to a notion of liberty
which is afraid of close affiliation, of organized
activity, of ecclesiastical unity, lest thereby, their
individual rights and prerogatives be suppressed, or
at least jeoparized. So long as this condition of
things exists, so long will the growth of the Unitar-
ian body be slow, and the extension of its principles
and doctrines, excellent as most of them are, be
restricted and held to narrow boundaries.

Much in sympathy as I am with what may be
deemed the essentials of the Unitarian faith, much
as I admire and honor its ministry and lay members,
speaking in a general way, and much as I appreciate
and commend the service it has rendered to primitive
and pure Christianity, I yet cannot yield it my
unqualified and entire approbation and support. I am
in no wise certain that, were all the world converted
to Unitarianism, the kingdom of God would have
come and the will of God be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Holding theoretically to the great ideas
of the divine Fatherhood and of human Brotherhood,
and letting no good opportunity slip without extolling
them to the highest degree, the Unitarians as a rule
seem to have no scruples regarding the maintenance
and active support of habits, customs, and institu-
tions, in social and civil life which set those ideas at
naught or openly defy them ; and although claiming

478 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

with persistent resolution to be Christians par excel-
lence-, yet so far as I know they neither seek nor
propose a type of civilization radically higher and
more Christlike than that now existing under which
in certain marked respects the essential principles
and spirit of Christianity are utterly ignored or ruth-
lessly trampled under foot. Hence I conclude that
the Unitarian Church with all its excellences is not
the church of the New Dispensation — the church
that is to inaugurate the divine kingdom on the earth,
and I therefore look for a higher, truer, better, more
perfect one, established upon better promises, and
possessing greater power of enlightening, uplifting,
and redeeming mankind. Tried by the supreme test,
I find the Unitarian Church wanting in some funda-
mental elements and requisites of a true church of
Christ according to the primitive pattern. I remand
it, therefore, with others I have examined, to a sub-
ordinate place in the providential economy of the
world and in the work of establishing on the earth
the long deferred reign of truth, love, righteousness,
brotherhood, peace, and joy.

Conclusion.

And so ends my review of the more popular,
notable, and significant churches or denominations of
Christendom. In my somewhat protracted analysis
and comparison of their respective platforms or bases
of ecclesiastical organization and administration, it
has been my main object to bring into view their
distinguishing characteristics in respect to doctrine

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 479

and practice, in order that a just and satisfactory
verdict might be rendered by the candid, fairminded
reader upon their inherent merits, as well as upon
the merits of my own system or scheme of ecclesias-
ticism as seen in connection with those which they
represent. It has not been possible within the limits
of time and space which I have assigned myself to
notice at all a considerable number of small sects or
religious bodies, however meritorious on the whole
they may have been or are, pointing out and com-
menting on their excellences and defects; nor to
consider critically the constitutional polities, the
rules, regulations, ceremonials, and usages of those
whose creeds or statements of belief have been made
subjects of inquiry; nor yet to be as elaborate and
thorough in what I have done as perhaps was desir-
able. But I have been able to show the sharp con-
trast which in many respects exists between the
theology and ethics of many of the prevailing
standards of faith and those of the one which I have
outlined in the earlier discourses of this volume, as
well as the agreement in other respects. Still I can
but feel that the comparison has been incomplete
and by no means all that I could have wished. But
incomplete as it is, it must remain without further
elucidation or maturation. If what I have written
shall in some definite way suggest or shadow forth
my deliberate conclusions touching the all-important
themes discussed; if it shall awaken in any earnest,
reverent mind inquiry touching those themes ; if it
shall stir any soul to the seeking after that higher
and better life for the individual, for human society,

480 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

and for the world, which I have endeavored to indi-
cate, commend, and promote, my cherished supreme
aim in preparing this work will be consummated, and
I shall be satisfied. And if, as I confidently believe,
there shall arise at no far distant day a body of people
sufficiently enlightened in regard to divine truth,
sufficiently imbued with the spirit of Christ, suffi-
ciently consecrated to the work of doing God's will,
and sufficiently united in thouglit, in heart, and in
purpose to institute a church on the basis I have set
forth and recommended, they will have my sugges-
tions, directions, formularies, and expositions to aid
them in their endeavors. They can consider, select,
reject, modify, or recast my system as their best
judgment shall dictate and approve. So through them
shall my labors in the Lord not have been in vain.
And now in closing, I would invoke the inspiration,
grace, and blessing of the Highest not only upon myself
and upon these efforts of mine here brought to an
end, but upon those who in the line of these efforts
and by their aid shall in some coming day seek to
upraise that regenerate church for which they are
designedly preparative, and in which they shall find
abundant justification, as I believe they will at the
righteous bar of the infinite and ever-blessed God.

Almighty Maker of the countless spheres,

Father of Christ and all the holy seers,

How long must prayerful faith expectant wait

Thy promised kingdom in this mortal state ?

When, through the true, the Christ-like Church renewed,

The race of man with love shall be imbued ; —

When all on earth shall know and do thy will

As all in heaven thy perfect law fulfill.

Date Due

~1^